


Lil' Sidekick

by Little_Plebe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers Feels, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis Friendship, Light Angst, Name-Calling, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Some Action, mentions of Bucky Barnes who's in cryo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 07:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7748812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Plebe/pseuds/Little_Plebe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When two strange men follow Darcy and Jane into a dark alley in Pattaya, Darcy immediately assumes the worst. Turns out, she couldn't be more wrong. Her entire life is about to change, all thanks to a spontaneous decision to visit Thailand and an unplanned encounter with notorious government fugitives Captain America and the Falcon.<br/>_________</p><p>“You are… you are…” Darcy stammered, her eyes taking in his features, his broad shoulders, his bulging biceps, everything suddenly making sense to her. “You’re Captain America!” She blinked. “Why are you trying to kill us?”</p><p>Captain America ran a hand down his face. “Okay. One, we’re not trying to kill you. Two, you need to lower your weapon before you hurt someone.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sabai Sabai

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I needed a release. Civil War was a really good watch and it has made me impatient for a fix-it. So here's my take.
> 
> Besides, anything for another Darcy/Steve oriented story, right? It's completely different from my other story _Where My Fears Lie_ since _Lil' Sidekick_ is more about finding humor and romance while the characters are on the run, with a little angst and feels thrown in and some necessary action to get their adrenaline going.
> 
> Proofread by synopsis, who's amazing at pointing out my mistakes and understanding my writing-related issues and insecurities.

The name of the restaurant was _Sabai Sabai_ and it was a cluttered little local diner in Pattaya, Thailand. The tables and chairs were squished together to accommodate as many guests as possible and the air conditioner was barely working. Darcy looked up to glare at the ceiling fan which was crawling at the speed of a snail and grunting like it was working up a storm. The thin and slightly greasy menu soon became her friend as she tirelessly flapped it in front of her face and neck to keep herself from losing any more body fat in the form of sweat. Jane, it seemed, was unfazed by the heat. The scientist’s nose was buried in her journal and she did not look up even when the infant of that couple in the corner let out a loud wail and kicked the waiter who went to serve them food.

Darcy tried to remember why they were there in the first place. They had been looking to get an early dinner and the concierge at their hotel had recommended _Sabai Sabai_ and its Thai Green Curry with Rice. Jane was keen to try it out while Darcy, looking at the dingy interior of the diner, took the safe bet and also ordered a Thai grilled chicken cheese sandwich in case the curry was a bust. She mentally cursed the concierge as she watched a waiter carefully trying to make his way to their table. He almost dropped the entire dish on Jane’s head when someone pushed back their chair to get up and Darcy gasped out loud. Irritated and also slightly embarrassed, she cast her eyes about the open dining area, checking to see if anyone had noticed the awkward moment of drama at her table.

There was a man, a few tables away, who was looking in her direction. Darcy looked down at her sandwich and after a couple of minutes when she looked up again, the man was still staring at her and Jane. She tried to move so that Jane blocked his view, but it was no use. He wasn’t openly staring, which Darcy would have preferred because then, she could make a face at him and flip him off. What he did instead was look over his beer mug, sweeping his eyes around casually before lingering on Jane and Darcy. The worst part was when his friend said something to him causing the man to nod in Darcy’s general direction.

“That dude’s been checking us out for a while now,” Darcy said to Jane.

Jane did not look up from the speech she was writing in her journal. “Does he look dangerous?” she asked.

Darcy chanced a glance in his direction. He looked away immediately, knocking down his empty beer mug in the process. It would have been funny had he not been watching the two women with agenda in his eyes.

“He’s big and he looks really strong.” She averted her eyes from the men. “He has a beard.”

That caused Jane to look up and glare at Darcy. “How many times do I have to tell you that not all bearded men are crooks?” she asked. “If you remember, Thor had a beard when he first landed.”

“Yes, and I tased him.”

Their blond and bearded stalker straightened, catching Darcy’s eyes. He reached into his jacket and Darcy panicked. “Jane, duck!” she yelled, throwing her sandwich at the man. It wasn’t very smart but she had no weapons and no better ideas. The man, to her shock, caught it with one hand, brow creased.

The minor distraction was enough for Darcy to herd a baffled Jane out of the bar and onto the busy street outside. She didn’t care about the heads she had elbowed or the chairs they had knocked down in the process, because looking back through the glass window, she saw the man and his friend get up to follow them.

“Shit!” Darcy grabbed Jane’s arm and began pulling her through the crowd. No one looked twice at them as they hurried past. “Two thugs are stalking us and I don’t even have my taser.”

“There are two of them?”

“Yep. He’s got a scary muscled companion who looks vaguely like a young Will Smith. Shouldn’t have left my taser at the hotel.”

“I have a gun,” Jane supplied helpfully, trying to keep up with Darcy’s hurried steps.

Darcy looked behind them and saw that the two men were gaining on them. She cursed again. “Okay, fine. Give me your gun. I’m not dying in the name of science. Or whatever it is they want from us.”

They turned down a deserted side alley where Jane pulled a small hand gun from her purse, handing it to Darcy with a dubious frown. “We’re in Pattaya, Darcy. Maybe they just want sex?”

Darcy shot Jane an incredulous look. “Look around, Jane. There are streetwalkers everywhere. If they wanted sex, they could have sex.” She eyed the entrance of the alley. “No, they want something else.”

She pushed Jane behind her, ready to raise the gun as she waited to see if the men would find them. Darcy would shoot them in the head if they so much as looked at Jane. Jane was hers and no one hurt what was hers. Both women instinctively stepped back as the men entered the alley, approaching them, unmindful of the gun Darcy pointed at them. The bigger of the two, the one who had been watching them at the diner, was clutching Darcy’s mangled sandwich in his hand.

“I believe this is yours, ma’am,” he said, holding it out to her.

Darcy stared at him in disbelief. Was this some sort of new trick that kidnappers used to lure their victims into their web of innocent lies and deceit?

“What do you want?” she demanded, ignoring the sandwich entirely. She would regret its loss—the waiter had said it tasted really good—but food was the last thing on her mind right now, with big blond and his muscled friend not being afraid of the fucking gun in her hand!

“You’re Dr. Jane Foster,” the blond said, eyes flickering to Jane, who was peeking over Darcy’s shoulder. “We would like to talk to you about Thor.”

“Hey!” Darcy raised the gun to his head as he stepped closer. “Don’t you dare! You don’t talk to her, you talk to _me_!”

“Darcy,” Jane said from behind her. She was trying to walk out but Darcy clamped one hand behind her on Jane’s waist, forcing her to stay in place. Goodness only knew what these guys wanted with Jane but Darcy decided it couldn’t be good.

Big blond was looking at Darcy in amusement. His eyes lowered to the gun and Darcy realized her hand was shaking. She huffed and fought to keep her limbs steady, not breaking eye contact with the stalker dude.

“They’re scared,” the muscled friend said.

“Darcy,” Jane said again, a hint of urgency in her tone.

Darcy ignored her. “No, we’re not,” she said defensively. “ _You_ should be scared. One wrong move and I’ll shoot your pretty little faces off your shoulders. Got it, tough guy?”

Big blond cocked his head to the side, studying both women curiously. “Is that why you threw your sandwich at me?” he asked. “You think we want to hurt you?”

He looked upset and it threw Darcy off. “I saw you reach into your jacket for your weapon,” she told him. “I’m not stupid.”

“I was pulling out my phone,” he said. “Look.” He put his hand into his jacket again.

“No, put your hands up!” Darcy yelled, backing up onto Jane’s toes. Jane had been constantly poking her side for the past minute. God, this was a disaster. They should never have come to Pattaya. They should have gone directly to Singapore as per the original plan. Singapore was safer.

The blond snorted but obediently raised his hands in the air. His friend merely rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Steve, just take it off, will you?” he grumbled. “They’ll recognize you.”

Darcy had no idea what he was talking about. She had to think of a plan of escape right now. These dudes were crazy. They followed women into alleys, they weren’t afraid of guns, they were talking about taking something off—oh God, was it clothes? And wait, recognize who?

“Darcy!” Jane finally hissed impatiently just as the blond sighed and peeled off his beard to reveal a clean cut face and a very patriotic jaw of justice.

Darcy’s jaw dropped, her death grip on Jane loosening. “You are… you are…” she stammered, her eyes taking in his features, his broad shoulders, his bulging biceps, everything suddenly making sense to her. “You’re Captain America!”

Jane stepped out from behind Darcy with a huff. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”

Darcy barely spared her a glance. “Why are you trying to kill us?”

Captain America ran a hand down his face. “Okay. One, we’re not trying to kill you. Two, you need to lower your weapon before you hurt someone.”

Still in shock, Darcy absently lowered the gun, having completely forgotten that she was holding it up in the first place. She watched as the Captain reached into his jacket to pull out his phone, just like he had said. He raised his eyebrows at Darcy as he made a call, the hint of a challenge in his expression.

Darcy turned to glare at Jane while he spoke on the phone. “You knew it was him?”

“Not at first,” admitted Jane. “But I recognized him. A beard is not that great a disguise for a public figure and a government fugitive.”

“I said the same thing,” the Captain’s friend joined their conversation. “He doesn’t listen to anyone, our Captain.”

“All right, Sam,” said Captain America, rolling his eyes and putting his phone away. He turned to look at Jane. “You need to come with us, Dr. Foster.”

Jane’s eyes widened and Darcy stepped closer to her. “What? Why?” the scientist questioned.

Captain America shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t give you the details here. But we have reason to believe that your life may be in danger,” he said. “You need to come with us.”

Despite looking confused and more than a little freaked out by the revelation, Jane nodded slowly. Darcy was surprised to see her friend concede so easily. What the hell was wrong with her? They had no idea why Jane’s life was in danger or from who. They had no idea where both men were planning on taking them. And hadn’t Jane just said that Captain America was a fugitive of the law? He and his band of merry men had disappeared off the grid two months ago after the Sokovia Accords and the Avengers fallout.

Darcy pulled Jane aside and whispered, “What are you doing? Why are we going with them? They’re criminals. They could be lying!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Captain roll his eyes and his friend, Sam, snort.

Jane shook her head. “He’s Thor’s friend and I trust him,” she said. Darcy was damned but Jane sounded firm.

Darcy clenched her teeth. This was not how she had wanted their little side trip to Thailand to pan out. In her head, it had been more fun and beaches, and less of Jane writing a speech for her conference in Singapore and much, much less of Captain America and his thug friend carrying them to an unknown location with no preliminary warnings or details about the matter.

“Fine,” she said, turning to both men as if _she_ had been the one deciding. “We’ll go with you.”

“You don’t really have a choice,” Sam pointed out.

“You don’t have to come,” said Captain America, looking at Darcy. “We’ll protect Dr. Foster.”

“I won’t come if Darcy’s not invited,” said Jane immediately.

“I go where she goes,” declared Darcy, glaring at him.

“Uh… Steve,” interrupted Sam, looking confused. “The feisty one needs to come, too.”

“Not really. We don’t have the time and resources to protect sidekicks. We’ll leave her be.”

“Hey!” cried Darcy, walking up to him and poking him in the chest. “Who you calling a sidekick, buddy? I’m nobody’s sidekick. I’m the best friend and the caretaker. Get it?”

“Is that so?” He looked amused and Darcy got the feeling that she was being trolled. Captain America or not, she wanted to slap him.

She stepped back and crossed her arms. “I don’t like you.”

“Darcy!” admonished Jane.

But Captain America just threw them a toothy smile and said, “I’m afraid that’s not going to help your case, doll. You’re coming with us, like it or not.” He put on his fake beard and made a sudden movement towards Darcy, causing her to shriek and stumble back. But he merely snatched the gun out of her limp hand and smirked at her.

The four of them made their way out of the alley and Sam led them to a car. He and Jane were walking ahead of Darcy with the Captain tailing her.

“Coward,” he whispered in her ear and Darcy jerked away from him, ignoring the smug smile on his face and quickening her steps until she was practically walking on Jane’s ankles.

It was hard to believe, but Darcy Lewis knew the truth now. Captain America was an ass.


	2. Marshmallows and Camping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by synopsis. You've been amazing so far.

After a brief stop at their hotel where Darcy and Jane gathered their belongings and checked out, they started on the road. Sam informed them that they were headed to Surat Thani and that it would take about ten to eleven hours to reach their destination. Initially, Sam was driving with the Captain riding shotgun. Jane and Darcy were situated in the back seat. After a few hours, the men switched seats and the women remained where they were. Much later, Sam declared his desire to stretch his legs a bit more and requested Darcy to take the front seat. Darcy moaned and grumbled but finally agreed, getting out and stomping around the car to take the seat beside the Captain.

“You can choose the music but it better not be rock or metal,” he said to her.

Darcy pursed her lips in annoyance. _Presumptuous bastard!_ Either he had read her mind or he was deliberately taking pleasure in being mean to her because she saw the corner of his lip twitch up. She huffed. “Shouldn’t you be telling us why Jane’s life is in danger and why you mentioned Thor earlier?” she asked him suspiciously. “You know he’s not on Earth, right?”

He nodded and glanced at Jane in the rearview mirror. “To tell you the truth, it wasn’t really in our plans to seek you out, Dr. Foster,” he admitted. “But Natasha somehow found out you were in Thailand and since we were here, too, we decided to track you down.”

“It was a bit tough to find you,” said Sam. “We have a photo of you but you look different now. You’ve cut your hair. When we saw you at the bar, we thought we were right but we wouldn’t have been sure if you hadn’t uttered Thor’s name.”

Darcy stared at them in disbelief. “So wait. You’re telling us that Jane’s life is in danger but you weren’t willing to do anything about it until we conveniently landed in your lap in Thailand?” She turned in her seat to look back at Jane. “That sounds promising.”

“You know, I could drop you off right here in the middle of nowhere,” the Captain warned.

“You wouldn’t dare,” challenged Darcy.

“Try me.”

“Look, we know how this sounds,” Sam cut in. “But we’re worried that things will get messy for you, Dr. Foster.”

“We don’t usually stay in one place for too long. General Ross and his henchmen are searching for us.”

“And it wasn’t until Natasha discovered your whereabouts and hinted that Ross could get to you,” continued Sam, “that we finally realized we needed to bring you in.”

Jane sat up in her seat, the confusion in her eyes mirroring Darcy’s. “Why would the government—uh, this General Ross—want me?” she asked. “I don’t have superpowers, I haven’t broken any laws and I’m not even with Thor right now.”

“Yes but when Thor comes back, you’re the first person he’ll want to see,” the Captain pointed out.

“And after the disaster that was the Accords and the consequent fallout, Ross would need some kind of leverage to get Thor to obey,” continued Sam, shaking his head in disgust. “Thor is an Asgardian God and we’re pretty sure he won’t want to sign his soul away to the Midgardian government.”

Darcy nodded. Sam was right. Thor would not sign the Accords. He only answered to himself and he meant well, his sole purpose being to protect all the realms. He didn’t need others telling him what to do.

“That’s why we feel it’s better you stay with us, Dr. Foster,” said Sam, his tone surprisingly implying request and not a command. “You’ll be safe with us where we can keep an eye on you and protect you should anyone come for you.”

Jane seemed to be digesting all the new information, so Darcy answered for her. “It makes sense, I guess.”

“What about the conference in Singapore?” asked Jane worriedly. “I can’t not go and I can’t go off the grid. It’ll look suspicious.”

“When is the conference?” Captain America asked.

“Next week.”

“We’ll take you,” he said with a curt nod. “Sam, tell Clint we’ll need the jet in Singapore next week. We can’t stay in the country longer than absolutely necessary.”

“Why not?” Darcy asked out of curiosity.

“Small country, too many rules, cameras everywhere,” he replied, his eyes flicking to her briefly as he drove. “There’s a higher chance of being noticed.”

“Right. Of course.”

They all fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Darcy was still having a hard time believing the turn her life had taken this time. One minute she was enjoying herself in Pattaya with her best friend and the next, she was on the run with Captain America and the Falcon. Did being with them mean that she was a fugitive too? Darcy didn’t know if she cared. As long as Jane was safe, Darcy didn’t mind being an outlaw, or whatever her status was now.

She waited for them to stop some place to eat but apparently, the men were making up for lost time because they drove fast on the mostly deserted highway and gave no indication of stopping anywhere. Ignoring the faint grumble of her stomach, Darcy accepted a couple of granola bars and a small juice carton from Sam and watched with interest the way Captain America devoured close to a dozen granola bars and a liter’s worth of juice in one go.

It was well past midnight when the Captain pulled off the road. “We’ll stop here for the night.”

Darcy looked around in the darkness. “Where?” she asked. She didn’t see a motel or any sort of living quarters nearby. He had stopped the car at the edge of the woods and if it wasn’t for the light of the moon, it would have been pitch black out there.

“We’re setting up camp here,” he informed her. “Why, were you expecting a five star hotel?”

Darcy couldn’t find it in herself to argue with him. While she hadn’t been so silly as to expect a five star hotel, she had at least expected a decent motel or—hell—even a dingy one. Anything with a bathroom was good. Camping was not at all her thing. _Damn_ , she cursed under her breath, getting out and going to stand by the trunk as the men unloaded their luggage and the tents they would be sleeping in.

There were only two tents and Darcy disapproved of that fact. “Couldn’t you get two more tents before you came to kidnap us?” she accused as she watched them setting up the said tents. “You knew we were coming.”

The Captain ignored her. “Sam, I think you should bunk with Dr. Foster, you know, in case someone or something comes for her in the night,” he said casually. “And I guess I’ll have no choice but to cozy up with the sidekick.”

“No way!” Darcy sidled up to Jane, grabbing onto her arm to claim the other woman. “There’s no way in hell I’m bunking with you.” How dare he even suggest such a thing? Who did he think he was? A small voice in her brain screamed ‘Captain America’ but Darcy ignored it.

“Sam, you get the tents up. I’ll get firewood.” He turned to Darcy and said with a grin, “You and me, we’re going to have so much fun killing bugs and counting the holes in our tent.”

“I’m not sharing a tent with you!” Darcy called after him angrily as he walked away. He didn’t turn around but he raised one hand in a sort of royal wave before disappearing between the trees.

Darcy turned to see Jane and Sam watching her in amusement. “You know he’s just messing with you, right?” said Sam.

Darcy blinked at him. She felt stupid. It was obvious the Captain was pulling her leg since there was no way he was crude enough to share a tent with Darcy or force Jane to share with Sam. He may be an ass but he was still Captain America with ‘righteous’ as his middle name. She felt herself relax but refused to show her relief to the other two. “Of course I do,” she huffed. “I just… is he always such a jerk?”

Sam laughed and shook his head. “He rarely has a chance to show off this side of him. I guess you bring out the best in him.”

“I wouldn’t say the best,” Darcy said sarcastically under her breath. She turned to Jane and placed her head on Jane’s shoulder. “How is this our life, Jane?”

“I’m guessing it’s definitely better than what it would have been if General Ross had gotten to us first,” replied Jane, running a gentle hand down Darcy’s back.

“That’s the spirit,” came Sam’s voice and Darcy groaned.

“I hate everyone,” she said after a while.

“Can’t say I’m surprised.” Gah, he had returned with the firewood… and so soon! “What else, tell me more.”

Darcy raised her head from Jane’s shoulder to glare at him. “Why don’t you act in character for a change?” she retorted. “Maybe spout out a speech about truth and justice. Or maybe treat a lady right, like I’m sure you were taught in the forties.”

He kicked the wood into place and let Sam start a fire. Then, he made a show of looking around them searchingly. “Lady?” he asked. “Where?”

Jane giggled and went to sit beside Sam on the forest floor. Darcy stepped forward and pushed the blonde. When he didn’t so much as budge, she pushed him again, this time with more force. He tolerated her unsuccessful attempts at violence with amusement in his eyes. “Stop, please,” he said. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”

“You know, Captain—” she began, a really mean remark on the tip of her tongue.

He cut her off. “Call me Steve.”

“No. I’d rather call you Captain.”

“Fine. Then call me Steve.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“I’ll start making sense when you start calling me Steve.”

“All right, fine, Steve!” Darcy threw her hands up in exasperation. The jerk. He had made her forget what she had prepared to say to him. She was sure it would have made him cry. Well, not really, but now that she didn’t remember, she pretended it would have made him at least shed _one_ unhappy, insulted tear. “You can’t be Captain America,” she finally said with a scowl. “You’ve ruined my entire life’s image of him.”

Saying that, she stalked into her tent and flopped down on the canvas floor grumpily. It was uncomfortable and slightly suffocating in the small confined space. Even the air smelled stale. She could hear their voices outside, discussing the route to Surat Thani and their detour to Singapore. At one point, she heard Sam speaking to a guy named Clint and Darcy was pretty sure Clint was Hawkeye, the Avenger with the amazing archery skills.

Twenty minutes later, when it felt like the tent was closing in on her, Darcy swallowed her pride and crawled out. Jane looked up and smiled at her. “Come on over, Darcy,” she said. The scientist was roasting marshmallows over the fire.

“We have marshmallows?” Darcy asked in surprise.

“We keep snacks on hand given how much we travel,” supplied Sam. Well, that explained the bag full of granola bars.

Jane shifted to make space for Darcy between her and Steve but Darcy turned her nose up and sat on the other side of Sam instead. Steve noticed it and she could see him bite back a smile. Darcy realized she needed to stop giving him more ammo to make fun of her, but she couldn’t help it. He got on her nerves. They had known each other for only half a day and he was already taking liberties with her – calling her a sidekick and a coward and demanding that she call him by his name. She wanted to sock him in the jaw but she couldn’t bring herself to break it no matter how much she hated him at the moment.

Sam was telling Jane about the others in their group who were hiding in the Philippines. “I’m glad we didn’t agree on Sri Lanka otherwise it would be a hell of a long detour to Singapore,” he said with a chuckle.

“How do you select a place to hide?” Jane asked, checking to see how her marshmallow was doing.

“If it was up to Clint, Scott and me, we’d be flipping a coin for our favorite places,” grinned Sam. “But Steve insists we do research before we decide on a place.”

“Isn’t that a good idea?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, but it ruins the fun.”

“You’re on the run. How much fun could that be?”

Sam shrugged. “We try to make the best out of a bad situation,” he said with a small wistful smile directed at Steve.

Steve smiled back. There was something in his eyes, something like conflict, which Darcy couldn’t immediately decipher. Before she could ponder over it, his eyes snapped to hers and he caught her staring. He raised his eyebrows and Darcy in turn flipped him off, causing him to laugh. She grudgingly admitted that he had a lovely laugh. She averted her eyes and reminded herself that she hated him.


	3. Your Highness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by synopsis.
> 
> If someone out there would like to proofread the next chapters of this story, I'd be very grateful. Synopsis is busy and won't be able to help me anymore. If you know someone who will be able to spare some time to beta for me, please do recommend them this story. Thanks in advance.

It was hot inside the tent. Darcy felt like she was burning up. Tired and hungry as she was, sleep didn’t come easily. She swiped a hand over her sweat slicked neck and bit her lip from screaming out in frustration. Jane was out like the dead and Darcy hated her for it. Cursing the whole world under her breath, she stepped out of their tent, sighing against the blast of cool, comforting breeze against her sweaty skin.

Sam and Steve’s tent was a few feet away from theirs; it was dark and silent and Darcy frowned at the way it had partially caved in on the men. Either Sam had done a shoddy job of putting it up or else the canvas was melting from the heat. She snorted and continued her walk around the camp site. It felt good, the cool breeze, the fresh air, the moonlight… maybe she could cuddle up beside that log right there. It would be easier to sleep outside rather than inside that monstrosity they called a tent.

Suddenly, the loud ring of her cell phone blared through the silence of the night and Darcy jumped, fingers already grasping in her pocket for the offending device.

She picked it up without checking the name on the screen. “Hello?” she answered in a raspy voice.

“Why isn’t Jane picking my call? I’ve been calling consistently since last evening!”

“Erik?”

“Who else would call at this time of the night, Darcy?”

“What time is it?” She thought she caught a movement in the other tent but she was tired and sleepy, and it was dark, so she ignored it.

“It’s 5:30.” Erik paused. “What’s going on? You didn’t call to check in yesterday.” Darcy blinked and straightened, sleep leaving her system at the sound of Erik’s worried voice. “Where the hell are you?”

“We’re fine, Erik. Absolutely fine,” Darcy reassured him. “We are still in—”

She gasped and almost dropped the phone when she felt a pair of hands turn her around and push her back against a tree.

Steve snatched the phone from her grip and disconnected the call before turning his angry gaze on her. “Who were you talking to?”

“E-Erik Selvig,” stammered Darcy. “He was worried about us. You know him, right?”

He was looming over her, his gaze dark and suspicious. Darcy couldn’t help the wave of cold fear that washed over her at his anger and his proximity. She stood still as he studied her, meeting his gaze unblinkingly, trying not to show that he scared her. But she must have failed because he blinked and she saw a glimpse of shame cross his features before he stepped away from her.

“No more phone calls,” he said. “I’m keeping your phone.”

Darcy pushed back from the tree, instantly defiant. “Why? It was just Erik worrying because we didn’t check in with him yesterday.”

“You know that calls can be traced?” He shot her a look, eyebrows drawn together.

“Yeah, but—”

“How do you know Selvig won’t give away details of your whereabouts if he was questioned?”

“He wouldn’t! Because—”

“Because he’s your friend?” he snorted, cutting her off again. “Do you even know what we’re up against? Do you know what will happen to us if we get caught?” He stepped into her space again but this time she held her ground. “They’ll throw us into an underwater raft prison without a damn trial!”

Darcy paled. “What?”

“And once you’re in, there’s no getting out. I had a hell of a time getting my team out of there the first time and I’m not looking forward to doing it again. So no, you have no idea what we’re up against. And no, I will not give you your phone back even if you were talking to ‘just Erik’, got it?”

Darcy lowered her eyes, digesting his words and letting them roll over in her mind till the enormity of the situation finally settled in. “Fine,” she said. Then, because she couldn’t help it, she mumbled, “You could have said that nicely. You don’t have to be so mean about it.”

Steve stared at her, his expression stony. After what seemed like an eternity where Darcy kept replaying his words in her head and seeing his mingled fright and fury from just a minute ago repeatedly flash before her eyes, Steve turned away from her and she heard him scoff. “Go back to your tent, little sidekick,” he said, walking away.

“Don’t call me that,” she said, watching him enter his tent without sparing her another glance. “Fucking Captain America,” she cursed under her breath, slapping open the flap of her tent and crawling in.

Jane was fast asleep, completely unaware of what had just happened between her intern and Captain Jerkwad. As Darcy lay down beside her, she wondered if he would confiscate Jane’s phone as well. She supposed he wouldn’t rest until he took away everything Jane and Darcy held dear.

It crossed her mind that she was being extremely ungrateful to her supposed-saviors but it was hot inside the tent and Steve was condescending towards her and she just couldn’t help being irritated about being snatched right out of the comfort of her mini vacation and plunged into the world of underwater prisons, government officials with agendas and fugitive Avengers. It was all too much and she was allowed some fucking slack, all right?

She tossed and turned but could not sleep, her mind conjuring up worse possible scenarios that could happen to them over the course of the coming days. Later, Sam came to wake them up and Darcy sat up morbidly, feeling exhausted, depressed, restless and hungry. She wished she had taken that sandwich from Steve the day before.

“Are we stopping for breakfast?” she asked once they had bundled everything up in the car and were back on the road to Surat Thani.

Steve glanced at her through the rearview mirror. “Yes.”

“When?”

“In a bit.”

“Well, make it fast. I’m hungry.”

“Yes, your highness. Anything else, your highness?”

“Steve, be nice,” said Sam, watching the countryside go by.

“Well, you tell her to be patient and not bite my head off.”

“Darcy,” said Jane, yawning loudly. “Don’t bite his head off.”

“What?” exclaimed Darcy crossly. “He’s the one who’s biting _my_ head off.”

“Guys, stop fighting,” said Sam. He fiddled with the radio and settled on an old classic. “No one’s biting anyone on my watch.”

“Christ!” Darcy slumped back in her seat and glared out of the window, resisting the urge to kick Steve’s seat from behind.

The roadside diner they stopped at seemed kind of ancient but was decent looking. Darcy was the first one to hop out of the car and bounce slightly on her feet. She could smell the food from inside, she was so famished. Jane and Sam were stretching while Steve was rummaging in the trunk for their bags. At the camp, Darcy had separated the outfit she intended to wear that day and placed it in her handbag with all her essentials, so she wouldn’t have to carry her huge travel bag everywhere with her. That monster could stay in the trunk. All of them needed a change of clothes and some cleaning up. Guess this little rundown Thai place would have to do.

“Darcy, catch,” was the only warning she had before her handbag came sailing through the air and collided with her chest as she caught it— _barely_ caught it, to be specific.

Steve shook his head. “Your reflexes are awful,” he said, handing Jane her bag. She smiled and thanked him before walking towards Darcy and tugging on her hand to follow her inside.

“Asshole,” muttered Darcy, letting Jane drag her in.

Once they were out of earshot, Sam rounded on Steve. “So I see you’ve taken quite a liking to Darcy,” he said sarcastically.

Steve snorted. “Please, she’s a brat. I’m just putting her in her place.” He tossed Sam his bag and hefted his own over one shoulder before closing the trunk and burying the car keys in his pant pocket.

“That’s not what this is,” said Sam, falling into step beside Steve as they made their way across the parking lot. “You’re targeting her.”

Steve scoffed and shook his head. “I’m not targeting her. _She’s_ provoking _me_! Let’s see. She called us lying criminals,” Steve reminded him, and then one by one started listing the things he had noticed about Darcy that annoyed him. “She acts like Dr. Foster is her property. She accused us of kidnapping her and not having a separate tent for her despite being familiar with our circumstances. She’s loud, whiny, negative, stubborn—”

“Funny, beautiful, loyal, _human_ ,” finished Sam with a raise of his eyebrows. When Steve did not comment, Sam asked, “Who’s being negative now?”

They made a beeline for the men’s room and ensconced themselves in separate stalls.

“She and Jane are so refreshingly human, Steve. And you know,” Sam said, fighting to put on his t-shirt. “She’s right. We kind of _are_ criminals, aren’t we?”

“See, that’s not even the point,” argued Steve, adjusting the front of his Henley. “The point is, she started it and—”

“And you’re going to finish it?”

Steve rolled his eyes even though he knew Sam couldn’t see him. “No. I mean I’m not going to take her shit. She stays with us, she learns to be grateful and patient and _polite_.”

He opened his stall door to see Sam standing outside, looking fresh and a bit too chipper for Steve’s liking. “She’s not your soldier and you’re not her admiral,” remarked Sam, flicking lint off his sleeve and looking bored while Steve splashed water onto his face.

“I know that,” sniped Steve with a frown. He wiped his face with a napkin and checked if his fake beard was in place. “Don’t mock me.”

Sam raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “If you want my opinion, I think that you’re having a bit too much fun setting her straight. So I’m beginning to think it’s not about that at all.”

“Stop thinking before you hurt yourself.”

“Hey, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I know you love to brood and sigh, and being righteous all the time must be exhausting, but you deserve a little fun, Cap. Everyone does.”

“Seriously, Sam, you’re making my brain melt.” Steve grabbed his bag and motioned for the door.

Sam placed his hand on the doorknob but didn’t open the door. He turned back to Steve with a hopeful smile. “Look, all I know is that I’ve never seen you like this with anyone, not even Natasha,” he stated. “Not even Sharon.”

Steve flinched at the name. “Yeah, well, that was a mistake. Terrible timing. Plus, it was…”

“Icky?”

“I was going to say awkward, but yeah.”

Sam nodded sagely, then continued, “So anyway, you hit it off with Darcy the moment she opened her mouth and I guess what I’m saying is that, she brings out the best in you.”

Steve would have snorted out loud but Sam opened the door and they stepped out of the men’s room. His eyes immediately found and zeroed in on Darcy. She had changed into a top that brought out the color of her eyes and her wayward hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, making him feel like he was finally seeing her entire face, and she was talking to Jane quite animatedly, her mouth opening for a laugh that never happened because, at the same moment, she spotted Steve and her face promptly scrunched up into an adorable scowl.

Steve found himself biting back a smile. She was so predictable. He realized that he had been wrong. She didn’t annoy him at all. She challenged him. She made him want to speak, to sass, to wind her up, just like how he used to behave with Bucky all those years ago when life was simple and the only thing he had to worry about was a premature death.

“Guess you’re right,” he said to Sam, unable to hide the awe in his voice. “Suppose she _does_ bring out the best in me.”

Sam grinned and slapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “I knew you’d see it my way. Now come on, I’m starving.”


	4. Chopsticks and Family Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. You guys really know how to encourage a person to write more.

“So what happens if this Ross guy gets his paws on Jane?” Darcy inquired, holding up a pair of chopsticks for examination and then trying to arrange her fingers around them in a proper grip.

“They can’t arrest me, can they?” asked Jane worriedly.

“Exactly,” said Darcy. “So it should be all right if they caught us or if we were to stop being on the run with you guys. They can’t really hurt us.” Maybe she was trying to find excuses to get out of this arrangement but could anyone blame her? Her future was already bleak and she had a feeling that if she stayed with fugitive Avengers, it would get bleaker and bleaker.

“They wouldn’t hurt you but they would take away your freedom,” said Steve, watching her struggle with her chopsticks.

“Ross will either have you tailed or he will assign you an agent upfront, someone who will follow you around until you lead them to the jackpot,” explained Sam.

Jane shivered. “Thor.”

“You will be questioned,” intoned Steve. “Your research will be violated; your families will get involved; your schedule pre-approved _and_ there are high chances they will use you to build a… what does Thor call it… ah yes, a Bifrost.”

All the color drained from Jane’s face. “Why would they want me to create an intergalactic wormhole?”

“You underestimate the government, Dr. Foster,” Steve said, placidly eating his rice porridge, not feeling the need to elaborate any further. Jane and Darcy were smart women.

Darcy exchanged a fearful glance with Jane. Nope, they were totally staying with Steve and Sam. Despite how much Steve annoyed her, he would at least keep them safe. Darcy couldn’t imagine a life in service to such people as General Ross. Who knows, maybe he would find a way to separate her from Jane. Darcy wasn’t important, she was expendable. She shuddered and went back to holding the chopsticks properly.

Steve watched as she labored over her breakfast, having not had a single bite since it was placed before her by the waiter. The chopsticks clacked against each other as she lowered them into her Pad Thai and tried to make them vainly scoop up some noodles. Her attempts so far were unsuccessful with the exception of that one time when she managed to grip a noodle between the sticks only to have her fingers slip and the noodle to land in Steve’s porridge.

“Oops,” she mumbled, going red.

“Why don’t you eat with a fork like normal Americans?” Steve drawled. “You don’t have to show off your chopstick holding skills in front of us.”

Darcy flicked another noodle at him, this time deliberately. “Shut up, I’m trying to learn. I’m embracing the Thai culture,” she declared haughtily.

“Embrace it some other day,” said Steve, swiping a fork from the holder and tossing it to her. “You’re wasting time.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. You’re not my mother.”

“We leave in five minutes. If you’re not done before that, we’re leaving you behind.”

Darcy opened her mouth to retort but she caught Jane and Sam exchanging an exasperated glance and she clamped her mouth shut, resorting to glaring at Steve while she obediently ate her Pad Thai with a fork. The recipe was good and soon, she found herself chomping it down with gusto, forgetting Steve’s snipes and everything else around her but her Pad Thai and her can of coke. When she finally looked up from her plate, she was sitting alone at the table.

“Shit,” she exclaimed, eyes frantically sweeping the diner for her three companions. When she didn’t see them, she grabbed her bag and dashed out of the diner.

Their car wasn’t in the parking lot and Darcy panicked. “Oh God, no! I’m sorry. Please come back,” she called, running to the road and peering at the horizon for any sign of their car. “Come back, I’m sorry!”

“Apology accepted.”

Darcy jumped and turned around to see Steve standing behind her, his face impassive. She blinked back tears of relief. “I thought you really left,” she said accusingly. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“You were being disobedient,” he told her. “Next time, we truly _will_ leave you behind.”

“Disobedient?” repeated Darcy, staring at him as if he had gone insane. What the hell was wrong with him? Who said stuff like that? Darcy was not his property!

She narrowed her eyes at him. His face, it was too straight, too strained, as if he was trying to hold back a laugh and suddenly Darcy realized that she had been trolled again. She removed her shoe and lobbed it at his head. _Bastard_! He caught it with one hand, without even looking at it, and smirked at Darcy.

“Thanks but I don’t think your shoe will fit me,” he sassed. “Your feet are too big.”

“You can troll me all you want, Captain America,” hissed Darcy. “But you wouldn’t be standing here if I had my taser with me.”

She heard a horn and turned to see their car driving back from its hiding place. Sam and Jane’s smiling faces came into view and Darcy let out a string of curses under her breath. Steve came up to stand beside her. “What would happen if you had your taser?” he asked curiously.

“You would be dead,” snapped Darcy, snatching her shoe from his hand and putting it back on.

“I don’t think a taser could kill me.”

“You would at least be writhing on the ground in pain and I would watch on and be happy,” jeered Darcy. God, how she missed her taser. If only she hadn’t misplaced it at the camp site during packing. Goddamn thing was never there when she needed it.

“You’re sadistic,” he noted, watching as Sam stopped the car before them and honked again.

“And you’re mean and rude and hurtful and condescending…”

“Don’t forget charming,” interjected Steve. He opened the door to the passenger seat and slipped in.

Darcy snorted. “Charming, my ass.” The history books were so wrong about him.

Sam poked his head out of the window. “Get in, loser. We still have a long way to go.”

Darcy slid in beside a partly apologetic and partly amused Jane. “I hate all of you,” she grumbled, stubbornly angling her body towards the window and glaring at the passing scenery. She proceeded to sulk for the next hour, avoiding eye contact and conversation with either of the three.

The others did not stop talking and their conversation flowed well. Jane spoke about her research and the upcoming conference in Singapore where she would be speaking about cosmic origins and dark matter. Steve mumbled something about missing his bike. Sam told them about having to send his family into hiding.

“Apparently, Clint has a secret family in a secret farm somewhere,” he divulged. “I don’t know how but it was somehow arranged for my parents and Scott’s family to move there indefinitely.”

“Must be tough,” sympathized Jane. “Living like that. Not to mention, inconvenient.”

“Can’t be helped.”

Darcy felt her anger melting a little. She grudgingly admitted that it was okay if Sam had conspired to prank her at the diner. He didn’t deserve her anger. He had already been through so much and now his family was suffering because of something he did that probably wasn’t even his fault to begin with. She supposed she could cut him some slack. Maybe let him prank her again. Anything to keep that silly smile on his hopeful face.

“What about your families?” asked Steve. “Ross could get to them, question them about your whereabouts, maybe even use them cleverly as bait. You’ll need to inform your folks that you’re okay and that you won’t be in touch for a while.”

“You can’t let them know you’re with us,” added Sam. “Just say you’ll be busy attending conferences or whatever plausible lie you can come up with.”

“My dad died years ago. My mom lives in London. She,” Jane paused and took in a deep breath, “She has Alzheimer’s… she doesn’t even remember me, let alone what I do and where I am.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sam sincerely.

“I don’t think she would be in any danger from anyone,” concluded Jane. “Or to us.”

Darcy let her eyes find Jane and threaded their fingers together in a gesture of comfort.

“What about you?” Steve asked and even though he hadn’t turned around, Darcy knew he was speaking to her. He hadn’t contributed much to the conversation so far, only speaking when he found it necessary or when he was asked something. Darcy noticed he kept playing with a flip phone that hadn’t left his hands since they had left the diner.

“I don’t have anyone waiting for me,” she told him tersely. “So we don’t have to worry about my family.”

When she didn’t elaborate, Jane whispered, “Darcy’s family died in a car crash when she was seven. She was raised by her Aunt Tessa.”

Steve’s fingers paused flipping and tossing the phone in his hands. “Where is she?” he asked.

“Dead,” said Darcy.

“What about your friends?”

“I don’t have any friends,” snapped Darcy. “I only have Jane.” And Erik, who already knew too much about their schedule to risk calling, especially after that failed phone call at the camp.

Darcy turned away, refusing to answer any more questions about her personal life. She was happy. She didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for her, especially Steve and Sam, two people who had been through more shit in their lives than she had, and Darcy’s troubles and tragedies didn’t even compare to theirs. So excuse her if she didn’t want to have a heart to heart with them.

The others had fallen silent as well. Jane squeezed Darcy’s fingers which were still clasped between hers. Sam’s eyes flickered to her in the rearview but he thankfully kept quiet. Steve had resumed playing with the phone. He kept checking it every ten minutes and Darcy wondered whose call or message he was waiting for. He finally put it away when they reached their destination late in the afternoon, the sun shining hot over them.

As they passed by the piers and market place of the capital city, Darcy decided that Surat Thani wasn’t as isolated as she had hoped it would be. But Sam kept driving east, past all the civilization and past the beach and finally skidded the car to a halt right next to a swamp. Darcy immediately made a face.

“Eww,” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Please don’t tell me we have to cross this swamp. I’d die before stepping foot in it.”

Sam laughed and opened his mouth to say something but Steve beat him to it. “Well, Sam and I are going to stay in that hut right over there. You and Jane have a special tree house in the swamp.” He paused and then asked, rather seriously, “You can climb trees, right?”

She was not falling for it this time. “Ho ho,” she said dully. “You can get my bags, American Pie.” She elbowed him as she passed, making her way to the quaint little hut Steve had pointed to. It looked interesting but Darcy wisely kept her mouth shut about how small it was. Steve brushed past her as he walked in with the bags and Darcy managed to land a kick to his calf.

The entrance room was bare. There was a comfortable looking couch by the wall, a stack of books in one corner and a beach ball in the other corner. There was a tiny kitchen space overlooking this room and beside that was a door that led to a small bedroom and another door that Darcy assumed was the bathroom. Overall, the hut looked pretty neat and cozy but Darcy wondered how they were all going to fit in there.

Sam tossed his bag beside the couch and turned to Jane. “You and Darcy can take the bedroom. Steve and I will bunk here.”

“On what bed?” Darcy asked.

Sam shrugged. “We’ll alternate on the couch.”

Darcy went to peek inside the bedroom. The bed was small but at least it would accommodate both women.

When she turned back, Steve was looking at her. “Why, you think you can make space for us on that bed?” he asked.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “You can barely fit into this little hut, you giant,” she remarked. “There’s no way I’m letting you anywhere near that bed.”

“I call dibs on the shower,” Jane called, making her way into their room.

Darcy sighed and followed her in. This was going to be such a long week.


	5. Cruise trip to Singapore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by pianobookworm. I cannot thank you enough for doing this for me.

Contrary to what Darcy had assumed, the next week passed by very quickly. She mostly spent her time going through Steve’s stack of books and sitting quietly on the beach watching the waves lap over the sand. At one point, Steve let her and Jane go to the market as long as they stayed together and came back within three hours. The two women returned with their arms laden with new clothes and jewelry.

“Look at this,” gushed Darcy, showing Sam her seashell ring. “Isn’t it pretty?”

“Sure,” said Sam. “But don’t you think it’s a little too big for your baby fingers?”

“Shut up. We got you and Steve clothes, too.”

She handed Sam the three t-shirts she had chosen for him and threw the last one at Steve, who looked stumped. “This won’t fit me,” he stated.

Darcy sniggered. “I know.”

He rolled his eyes and a moment later, the t-shirt found itself smacking into Darcy’s face.

It was a miracle how the four of them had adjusted to each other in such a short amount of time. Jane got along famously with both Steve and Sam and both men seemed to respect her. Darcy, on the other hand, became the butt of all their jokes. Sam’s were mostly innocent fun while Steve’s were taunting, almost provoking in their nature. Sometimes they made her laugh; sometimes, she would snark right back at them; then, there were times she would huff and lock herself in the bedroom until Sam or Jane came to apologize and drag her back out.

Her relationship with Steve improved as well. It had come at the price of Darcy having to venture and hide in the muddy and mosquito-ridden swamp till Steve got frantic with worry at her supposed disappearance. Sam had eventually broken down and told him the truth but Darcy considered herself avenged, judging by the delightful panic she had wrought on Steve. They reached a tentative truce after that which did not encompass verbal sparring. She still had moments when she wanted to tase him in the gut but those moments were becoming surprisingly rare.

Steve and Sam were in constant touch with the other part of their group in Philippines. They had taken to discussing where they would go next, Steve taking Clint’s help in finding out if there were any undiscovered, old S.H.I.E.L.D. safe houses where they all could stay for more than a couple of months if possible. Jane asked them what would happen next and how long were they going to run until they were ultimately caught. Sam went quiet but Steve remained confident they wouldn’t have to run forever.

“How do you know?” Darcy questioned him, her curiosity piqued.

“Thor said something before he left,” revealed Steve. “Something big is coming and the world is going to need the Avengers again. All of us.”

Darcy exchanged a dubious glance with Jane. Maybe Steve was right or maybe he was in over his head, either way right now it didn’t matter. Right now, they were still fugitives until someone killed Ross and tore up the Accords. Darcy was betting on the Black Widow to achieve that near impossible feat. If anyone could do something like that, Natasha Romanoff could.

“Where is she?” she asked Sam one day. “The Widow.”

“At the compound,” he replied. “With Stark, Rhodes and Vision.”

Darcy was surprised with this little piece of information. “Didn’t you say she helped you? Shouldn’t she be in hiding as well?”

“T’Challa retracted his statement and the authorities had no choice but to clear Nat’s name. Lucky, eh?”

“So what is she doing? Why is she still helping you? How did she find us in Pattaya?”

Steve looked up from his scrambled eggs. “What’s with all the questions, lil’ sidekick?”

“I just want to know what’s going on and what everyone is up to,” Darcy said defensively, adding lowly, “Jerk.”

“Darcy, stop calling Steve names,” scolded Jane.

“Tell him not to call me sidekick then!” She turned to Sam again and gave him puppy dog eyes. “Sam, tell us. We already know everything else.”

Sam sighed and replied reluctantly, “Natasha is helping Stark build hospitals in places that were hit. They are the face of the Avengers now.” Here, he paused and looked at Steve uncomfortably. “I have to admit Stark is really doing what he intended to do all along – he’s helping people, looking out for everyone, building infrastructure, providing relief in Sokovia and Lagos. It’s… I don’t know how to feel about that.”

Steve didn’t reply and Darcy saw him fiddling with the flip phone again, his eyes lowered and his expression guilty. She was beginning to get an idea whose call he was waiting for but she wasn’t stupid enough to ask or mention anything.

The day before they were to leave for Singapore, the four of them cleared the entire hut, leaving no traces that anyone had ever lived there. They left in the afternoon for Phuket, where they were going to board a cruise that would take them directly to Singapore by next morning. Sam said he had a friend on the inside who owed him, who would help them sneak in and provide them a cabin as well.

“Oh, this is too good to be true!” exclaimed Darcy giddily. She couldn’t believe they were going on a cruise, even if it was just for the night. She had never been on a cruise before and couldn’t stop her excitement from overflowing.

“Don’t get too excited,” Steve warned, breaking her bubble. “We don’t know what awaits us in Singapore.”

Darcy sniffed in annoyance. “Can’t you let me be happy for one minute?”

They were both in the back seat of the car and she eventually dozed off on his shoulder. He shook her awake in the evening when they reached the port in Phuket. Darcy instantly jerked away from him.

“Get away from me!”

“Need I remind you that it was _you_ who fell asleep on _my_ shoulder?”

“Whatever. But don’t touch me again.”

Sam’s friend was a large Mexican guy with tattoos all over his left arm. He spoke broken English mixed with Spanish which Sam thankfully seemed to understand. Darcy and Jane were too preoccupied with looking around the beautiful island to pay any attention to their conversation. They could see cruise passengers making their way back to the ship as darkness fell. From what they learned, the ship had embarked from Singapore two nights ago, stopped in Langkawi and Phuket, and was on its way back to Singapore.

“Okay, let’s go,” announced Sam.

“Just like that?” asked Jane in awe.

Sam grinned. “Just like that.”

“What about the car?”

“Payment for getting us into the vessel.”

The Mexican dude took them past the main entrance, where cruise passengers were milling about being checked in, and sneaked them in through what Sam playfully called ‘the ass end’ of the ship—which Darcy took to mean a sort of back door. They passed a lot of locked metal doors and workers pulling levers before they reached the first (from the bottom) residential deck of the ship. A blast of cool air hit them when they entered the main area and Darcy immediately clutched Jane’s hand. Sam’s friend led them to a corner cabin on Deck 5 and then left with a nod. Sam produced a keycard from his pocket with a flourish, making Darcy giggle.

“You’re such a show-off,” she said.

Her happiness at being on a cruise didn’t falter even after she saw the tiny cabin they would be sharing for the night. There were two single beds and barely any space to walk in between them. The bathroom was fist sized and Steve groaned loudly when he saw it. There was no way he was going to fit into that tiny shower space. Sam mocked Darcy for not finding a single thing to complain about their sleeping arrangement. She rolled her eyes and happily announced that they could have the cabin, she would be spending all night outside looking at the ocean. Saying that, she bounced off.

The ship was big but compared to other cruise liners of the Far East and those running in Europe and the Americas, this vessel was smaller. It was still pretty big to Darcy, who couldn’t seem to care for the technicalities. By the time she had explored all 12 decks and all the restaurants where food was complimentary for passengers, it was midnight. With a plate of assorted pastries in one hand and a chicken wing in the other, she eventually made her way to the highest deck, weaving through late night stragglers, trying to find an isolated spot to sit and stare at the water.

She found Steve at the far corner of the ship, sitting in a nook and staring intently at the flip phone in his hand, as if willing it to ring. His eyes lit up when he saw her and Darcy idly wondered what new mischief he had for her up his sleeve.

“I will share my pastries with you,” she began regally, “if you promise not to make fun of me or call me sidekick.”

“Okay,” he said with grin.

It was too easy. Darcy wasn’t stupid but she sat down nevertheless because he looked like he needed some company. He reached over to take a pastry and Darcy slapped his hand.

“Not the carrot flavored ones,” she said.

He rolled his eyes and picked a chocolate pastry instead.

“You know,” Darcy said. “There’s a sex show on the ship’s activities schedule. How cool is that?”

He choked on his pastry. “Sex show?”

Darcy nodded. “There are all kinds of other shows as well, but the entrance to this one was most crowded.” She bit into her chicken wing and continued dubiously, “I wonder if that’s the reason it’s a paid show. Quite a few others are complimentary for guests.”

“Do you want to go?” Steve asked her, looking strained. “If you do, we have money.”

“Why would I want to watch a sex show?” said Darcy with a frown.

“Why did you mention it then?”

“I don’t know. I was trying to make conversation.”

He scoffed but refrained from commenting. There was lightning in the distance and Darcy turned to look. When she turned back, she saw one less carrot pastry on the plate. She narrowed her eyes at Steve who smiled back, his face the very definition of innocence. He had removed his beard. Darcy would never tell him that she liked him best without the beard on. Steve had such handsome features that it was a shame he was forced to hide them behind fake facial hair.

Darcy popped a pastry into her mouth and tried to gather the courage to ask him what she was going to next. “Why don’t you call him?”

He looked at her to find her eyeing the phone in his hand. Darcy noticed him instinctively pull it closer to his body, as if protecting it from her gaze. He was obsessed with that phone. Really, it was pathetic. To his credit, however, he did not pretend to not know what she was talking about.

“He doesn’t want to talk to me,” he mumbled, looking away.

Darcy raised her eyebrows. “How do you know unless you call and find out?”

Steve shook his head and sighed regretfully. “I kept something from him, something that I should have told him long ago when I had the chance.”

“But you’re his friend, right?” persisted Darcy. “He will forgive you, he _has_ to forgive you.”

He was silent for a long time, his eyes haunted and his expression wistful. Then, just when Darcy assumed the conversation was over, he spoke.

“He will never forgive me for what I did.”


	6. Not All Scientists Are Nice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by the lovely pianobookworm.

“I don’t want to leave,” whined Darcy. “Please let me stay. Jaaaaaane.”

Jane had a hand clamped on her wrist and was practically dragging Darcy behind Steve and Sam as they made their way down the ramp and out of the ship. The Mexican dude had come back to collect them and, presently, he was weaving between other passengers with increasing speed, making it difficult for the four of them to keep up with all their luggage. Darcy’s whining wasn’t making it any easier.

“I can work here and survive,” she was saying, spouting out reasons that would convince them to let her stay. “I can be a crew member. Hey, I can perform in the sex show!”

Jane looked scandalized. “Darcy, you’re not performing in any shows. And walk properly, will you?” When Darcy merely kept dragging her feet and the Mexican bloke was almost out of sight, Jane called Steve’s name. “A little help?” she pleaded.

Steve turned back to look at Darcy. She really did look quite upset at having to leave the ship so soon. Unbidden, a thought came to his mind that once all this mess was over and their names cleared, the first thing he would do was take Darcy on a cruise with him. He blinked and shook his head. He needed to focus. Sam, too, had stopped walking and he raised his eyebrows when Steve met his gaze.

“Go on,” he said. “Give me that bag.”

Sam was already carrying three bags on his person. Jane came up and said, “No, give me. Just bring Darcy with you.”

Steve nodded and passed Jane the bag. She smiled at him and he watched them go before turning to Darcy, who was still loitering by the ramp and staring wistfully at the ship. He went up to her and touched her arm, making her jump.

“Woah!” she exclaimed. “What did I say about touching me?”

“Darcy, you can’t stay here,” Steve said. “Stop acting like a child.”

“You’re the child!” she snapped. “Why don’t you guys go on? I’ll catch up with you.”

“Really? And how will you clear immigration?”

When she stopped and actually began to ponder his question, Steve had had enough. He bent down and wound an arm around her waist, swiftly hauling her up against his side and beginning to walk. Darcy squeaked in surprise and promptly began to struggle against his grip.

“Hey, put me down,” she cried. “Steve!”

He kept walking. Shocked, she looked down at her feet dangling in the air and her hand slapped over his, trying to pry his fingers from her waist. But his grip remained firm. People were beginning to notice, some of them pointing and laughing out loud at Darcy’s predicament.

“You put me down right now or I’ll scream bloody murder,” she hissed in Steve’s ear, knowing deep down that her threats would not work on him but giving it a shot nevertheless.

“Go ahead,” he said challengingly.

She did not scream but she did not stay still either. Doing her best to push him away from her, she landed a few desperate kicks to his shins and tried to get his arm off her, all the while muttering about jerks touching her without her permission and idiots manhandling her against her will.

Sam, Jane and the Mexican dude soon came into sight and Steve increased his pace, practically flying down the walkway with Darcy still dangling at his side.

“Put me down,” she said again once they reached the other three but was steadfastly ignored.

They were nearing cruise immigration and Steve’s eyes flew around taking everything in. There were guards on either side of the hall and three queues of passengers awaiting their turn to be called to the front. The Mexican, however, did not stop and led them straight past the queues without any explanation to anyone. Steve’s heart thudded with fear and anticipation at the sight of immigration officers sitting behind their desks. There were six of them in rows of three and one by one, they called on each passenger and took their time checking cruise permits and stamping the departure stamp on their passports.

Steve tried to catch Sam’s attention. What were they going to do? If they got caught, there was no going back. All the efforts they had put into running for the past two and half months would be for naught. Taking a deep breath, Steve willed himself to walk steadily and confidently, his face lowered and casually turned away from the camera. Darcy had quieted as well, sensing the tension in his body and the seriousness of the situation. He was so preoccupied with maintaining fake nonchalance while simultaneously trying to stay alert for a possible ambush that he forgot to put Darcy down and carried her right past the immigration officers, none of whom spared them a single glance as they passed.

Steve looked back once they had made it out of the danger zone, surprise apparent on his features. Up ahead, he heard Jane whisper, “What just happened?” and he found himself wondering the same thing. He let out a breath that he hadn’t known he had been holding and his death grip on Darcy eased. It was then that he realized that she had stopped struggling entirely and was now hanging rather limply at his side, her cheek resting on his shoulder and her hair tickling his neck.

Ignoring the hammering of his heart, which was acting up for an entirely different reason this time, Steve shrugged when Jane looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at finding Darcy quiet and cooperative.

“I hate you,” Darcy whispered in his ear. “Jane, tell Steve I hate him.”

Jane laughed. “I’m sure he already knows, honey.”

He put her down once they were standing outside the cruise center and Sam was up ahead thanking his friend and asking directions. Darcy pushed away from Steve and went up to stand beside Sam, who presently extracted a wad of cash from his pocket and handed it to the Mexican tattoo addict. After he left, Darcy asked Sam, “I thought the car was the payment to get in.”

“It was,” nodded Sam. “This is for that thing waiting for us right over there.”

Darcy looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a Singaporean cab waiting for them in the parking lot. There was no driver, so she assumed it was for their sole use only. She whistled loudly. Who _was_ that guy? First, he had helped them skip immigration without a single blip and now this. “What kind of friends do you have, Sam? And how many and where else?”

Sam answered with a laugh and a conspiratorial wink.

Jane’s science conference was at a place called Suntec City Convention Center. During their drive to Suntec City, Jane sat in the front with Steve, going over her speech for the conference. Sam sat in the backseat with Darcy, pulling out his Falcon gear from his bag and activating and deactivating it to check if it was working properly. He hadn’t used it in quite some time and Darcy assumed he was worried it had become rusty. Once he was satisfied with his wings, he extracted a handful of communication devices from his bag and dumped them on Darcy’s lap.

“Won’t you be recognized?” Darcy asked him. He wasn’t wearing any disguise like Steve wore the beard. And if he was seen with his wings, people would definitely know it was the Falcon.

“Not as famous as Cap here,” he replied offhandedly. “People here are not so familiar with me unless they somehow match my face with the photograph in the weekend newspapers.”

“Won’t they?”

“Nope. I’ll be backstage with you and Jane. No one will be paying attention to me.”

“But what about the cameras everywhere?” pressed Darcy. “The police will definitely recognize you.”

Sam paused in his work and looked up at Darcy with a small smile. “Are you worried about me?”

Darcy huffed. “No. I’m just saying you need to be more careful.”

He grinned as if he could see right through her. “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself.”

He helped Darcy and Jane plug in the comm. in their ears and then went back to fussing over his falcon suit. Meanwhile, Steve was speaking to Clint and had put the phone on speaker while he drove.

“Jane says she can finish off in maximum two hours and maybe another half hour for questions.”

“Noted.”

“Where are you going to be?”

“Near the Malaysian border, second link.”

“Wanda and Scott with you?”

“Yep. Be safe, Cap.”

The call ended and Steve turned. “All ready?” he asked and Darcy felt like they were going into battle.

“Yes, Captain,” she saluted.

The convention center was massive and extremely sleek. Darcy couldn’t help but look around in awe as Jane was welcomed warmly at the entrance. As usual, Jane got all the importance, and Darcy and Sam were left to loiter in the background while she talked science with her fellow astrophysicists who were also there for the conference. Sam didn’t mind—in fact, he would have it no other way—but Darcy was quite unhappy about it. Although she was used to it by now, she couldn’t help absolutely hating it when Jane ignored her in favor of other learned people of her profession. She walked on Jane’s heels and Sam trailed behind the group, his hood up, sunglasses covering half his face and carrying the bag containing his falcon suit.

“You look like a crook,” Darcy hissed at him. “Ditch the sunglasses, will you?”

They went up to Level 3 of the building and entered a huge hall with chairs lined along the length of it and a sizeable stage at the front of the hall. There was no back door. Sam looked around in dismay.

“Where’s the backstage?”

Darcy shrugged, trying not to panic at his tone. “It’s not a theatre, it’s a hall. There’s no backstage area,” she deduced.

The hall was already full with people and it was terribly noisy, everyone talking all at once. Some were standing by their seats, some lurking by the refreshments table, while a few creeps stood around staring at people who entered. Darcy tried to relax. Nothing was going to happen. She had done this a million times with Jane. It was brilliant each and every time and Jane amassed more and more followers. _It’s going to be fine_ , Darcy told herself, _totally fine_.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Sam murmured in her ear, breaking into her hopeful thoughts with disturbing ease. “Something’s not right.”

“What do you mean?” Darcy asked him, her eyes fixed on Jane who was up ahead speaking to a couple of elderly gentlemen.

“I don’t know yet.” He turned slightly and lowered his head to speak to Steve, who was lurking outside the convention center, keeping watch.

“You see those two men in black suits?”

Darcy swept her eyes around the room but couldn’t see them. “Where?”

“10 o’clock,” instructed Sam. Her eyes finally saw who he was seeing. Dressed just like everyone else, they did not look suspicious at all. Darcy wouldn’t have paid them much attention, had they not been staring rather intently at Jane from across the hall.

“Keep an eye on them. I’ll be outside in the corridor,” Sam told her. “Get to me immediately after Jane’s done here. Got it?”

Darcy nodded. “Got it.”

She turned to see him casually walk out of the hall, his head lowered as if he was speaking on the phone. Darcy admired his confidence for a minute before turning back to keep an eye on Jane, who had since moved to a larger group of people, all of whom were listening intently as she spoke. The two men in black followed Jane with their eyes. When the conference started, Darcy took a deep breath, _here goes_.

It was slow, very slow. Her mind began to wander. She alternated her gaze between the MIB dudes and the refreshments table. There were all sorts of food varieties on the table and Darcy had to physically stop herself from going there and picking one of each. Jane was on stage, talking about dark matter and black holes and whatnot—Darcy had stopped paying attention a long time ago. The two MIB cartoons were still pretty intent on keeping an eye on Jane and it was making Darcy uncomfortable and slightly terrified. As the minutes passed, she became surer and surer that they were Ross’ men, there to capture Jane.

The question and answer session lasted for a full hour. Jane was asked all kinds of questions, most of them not related to her subject that day at all. She was asked about the Convergence and her work on wormholes and a string of other questions that the host eventually put an end to, introducing break time and asking everyone to head to the refreshments table. Darcy jumped up to make her way to Jane but a hand on her shoulder caused her to turn around.

A dark-haired man, seemingly in his late thirties, was smiling down at her. “Hello. Are you a scientist?” he asked her.

“No,” Darcy said shortly.

“What’s your name?”

“Juliet,” she lied. She tried to turn around but the man had the audacity to take her hand in his.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Darren,” he said, shaking her hand. “Are you here alone?”

Darcy stared at him incredulously. Was he trying to hit on her at a science conference? Random strangers trying to talk her up were no novelty for Darcy but she still wasn’t used to it, especially since she maintained the belief that scientists were more sophisticated than that. This guy, however, couldn’t be a nice scientist with the way he was leering down at her. She snatched her hand out of his grip and tried to be as polite as possible.

“Listen, Darren, I’m not…”

She trailed away when her comm. crackled to life. It was Steve and he was shouting. “Darcy, get Jane out of there now!”

She spun around to see the MIB thugs making their way towards Jane. “Shit!”


	7. What happened in Singapore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by pianobookworm, who is absolutely amazing at providing honest and helpful critique and understanding my writer issues.

“Shit!”

Darcy panicked, Steve’s voice still ringing in her ear, and without sparing Darren another glance, she dashed away toward her friend. One of the agents had reached Jane and she turned to him with a smile, expecting another person who wanted to ask her science questions. “Dr. Jane Foster,” he began just as Darcy skidded to a halt beside them. With her heart hammering in her chest, she said the first thing that came to mind.

“Excuse me, Dr. Foster, that man over there would like your autograph.” She pointed towards Darren who was, thankfully, still standing where she had left him, looking in Darcy’s direction. She turned back to the men in black and smiled apologetically. “She’ll be with you in a moment, gentlemen.”

If Jane was confused by Darcy’s strange behavior, she did not show it. She obediently followed Darcy across the room before asking, “They’re here, aren’t they?” Darcy nodded and turned her head casually to find the MIB thugs speaking into their comms, confirming Sam’s suspicions from before. She had a feeling, especially judging by Steve’s tone on the comm. earlier, that they were surrounded.

Darcy resisted the urge to grab Jane’s arm and drag her out of the door. They were not supposed to draw attention to themselves. But how were going to get out without the agents noticing? If Jane so much as stepped out of the door, all their units would be alerted and then both women would be in a right fix with no way of getting out of it unharmed.

Just as Darcy was thinking that they needed some sort of a distraction, a loud boom went off in the building and people started shouting. The floor beneath them shook terrifyingly and pieces of cement fell from the ceiling. “What the hell?” Jane exclaimed as everyone started going for the door at once. Darcy looked behind them at the MIB agents, who looked angry at being pushed around by a stampede of scientists fighting to head out.

“Come on,” Darcy said, seizing the opportunity. She locked hands with Jane and both women let themselves be carried out of the door by the crowd.

Sam’s voice panted in their ears. “I’m compromised. Cap, switching to Plan B – I’ll take Jane.”

“Guys, we’re surrounded. There are agents everywhere. Get out of the fucking building!”

A gunshot rang out and the corridor echoed with screams of innocent civilians. The men in black had come out to play. Darcy and Jane ducked along with the rest of the crowd, their eyes wide and fearful. “Quit barking orders, Steve, and come rescue us,” Darcy whispered shrilly into her comm. There was another gunshot and, this time, the screaming ceased. Everyone was looking at the scary men in suits. Darcy registered that their numbers had increased. Still in a crouching position, she surreptitiously pushed Jane behind a fat gentleman and waited.

“We’re looking for Dr. Jane Foster,” a voice boomed, making Darcy flinch. “Dr. Foster, please show yourself.”

When no one moved a muscle—everyone still a bit shocked to say or do anything—the agent spoke again. “We’re here on behalf of the US Government. We’re here to protect you, doctor.”

 _Protect Jane, my ass_ , Darcy thought bitterly to herself. She heard Steve curse on the comm. “I can’t make it in. I’m being shadowed. Sam?”

“I’m on it. Jane, Darcy, where are you?”

“Outside the conference hall,” whispered Jane.

“Dr. Foster.” The men in black were still chanting her name, looming over the squatting crowd, their eyes searching for the astrophysicist.

“Jane, get ready!”

Without a single moment of hesitation, Jane straightened up at Sam’s command. There was a couple of seconds of pause where they heard a thud and a crash and then Sam emerged from the stairwell, stumbling a little but still upright. He had his gear strapped on and in the blink of an eye, his wings spread out and he leapt into the air. Jane ran towards him. Seeing this, the agents jumped into action, half of them clambering over the crouching people to get to Jane while the other half firing freely at the Falcon.

“Stop!” Darcy heard an agent shout but she maintained her gaze on Sam as he swooped down and gathered Jane into his arms. A bullet ricocheted off his metal wings and Jane screamed. Darcy watched as they become airborne, Jane dangling uncomfortably at Sam’s side, and then they zoomed up and broke through the glass window, disappearing from sight. Darcy remained crouched behind the fat guy. The men in black ran past her without noticing her and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Ignoring the shocked whispers that had broken out around her, she placed a finger into her ear. “Steve,” she whispered, her voice slightly shaky.

His reply was prompt. “Darcy, get out of there!”

She obeyed blindly, making a beeline for the staircase, adrenaline pumping through her system as she flew down the stairs and made her way to the exit.

“Get to Raffles Avenue,” Steve instructed.

“Where’s that?” she panted into her comm.

“Out of the building, first left.”

She had never run this fast or this much in her entire life, not even during the battle with Malekith. Everywhere she looked, she saw men in black. She didn’t know if it was her imagination and she was being paranoid, or if they truly were still milling about pretending to be normal people. She decided she was being paranoid. The agents had left the building; they weren’t looking for her, they were looking for the Falcon and, by extension, Captain America, who wouldn’t be far behind. Darcy wasn’t on their kill list… yet.

She found Steve on Raffles Avenue, lurking behind a clump of trees. Four agents lay unconscious in the bushes behind him. Darcy raised her eyebrows at the sight. “I couldn’t shake them. So I took them out,” explained Steve matter-of-factly. “Now come on, we’re going to be breaking some traffic rules.” Taking her sleeve, he pulled her onto the road with him. She tried not to scream as he weaved through the passing vehicles confidently, taking her with him.

“Sam will take Jane directly to the jet.”

“What about us? Where’s our cab?” Darcy asked, clutching her aching side as they ran down the pavement.

“Just a bit further.”

“How far, Steve?” she panted.

“Five minutes, if we run fast.”

“What?”

“Parking is an issue here,” he told her.

“Steve, I can’t run anymore.”

“There are agents behind us, I can hear them.”

But there were agents heading in their direction from the front as well. They hadn’t noticed Steve and Darcy yet but it was only a matter of time and since they were specifically searching for Steve, his bearded disguise was of no use—they would recognize him immediately. Steve skidded to a halt and looked around, eyes searching for an escape route.

“Damn it,” he muttered. The agents were closing in on them.

“Steve,” Darcy whispered fearfully.

He looked to be debating about something but her voice seemed to jolt him out of his thoughts. He pushed her to the side of a nearby building and crowded into her space. Despite her fear, Darcy’s senses immediately went into overdrive. She held up her hands to stop his advance.

“Hey, no touching, no touch—”

“Darcy,” he interrupted her. “Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m going to kiss you and you’re going to stay very still.”

_“What? No!”_

Before she could get another word in, his lips descended on hers and she stiffened. She stood very still, eyes wide open, shocked into momentary submission. Steve’s eyes were closed and one of his hands rested lightly on her waist. His mouth was static against hers, just a gentle press of lips to serve their purpose. Out of the corner of her eye, Darcy saw the two sets of agents walk towards each other and look around searchingly. It was almost funny how their eyes slid past Steve and Darcy as if they weren’t there at all. After a moment of speaking to each other, the agents turned and headed in the opposite direction.

Darcy bit back a sigh of relief and relaxed against Steve, her eyes closing and her hands climbing up his chest. It was as if she was finally realizing their position, registering the softness of his lips against hers and the heat of his body just a few inches away from hers. A shiver ran down her spine and her heart skipped several beats and then, her lips moved of their own accord, pressing back against him and opening slightly to taste—

Steve pulled away and Darcy blinked her eyes open to find him looking at her in surprise. “You kissed me.”

Darcy’s first instinct was to slap him and yell, “No, _you_ kissed me!” But perhaps deep down she knew he was right or perhaps her mind was still dazed from what had just happened because she ended up glaring defiantly at him and declaring, “I did not!”

She thought she imagined it when his fingers on her waist flexed slightly, but next second, he had turned around and was checking the surroundings. He looked back at her with a grin.

“You did,” he said. Before she could open her mouth to protest, he stated, “The coast is clear. Let’s go.”

He held out his hand to her but she crossed her arms under her chest and glared at him. “Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug, turning around and jogging away.

It didn’t take her more than a couple of seconds to relent. She stomped her foot on the pavement in annoyance and followed after him, grabbing the back of his jacket to keep him from leaving her behind. It didn’t take that long to reach their cab but it seemed that luck was not on their side that day because just as they climbed into the cab, the back glass window shattered.

Steve shouted “Duck!” at the same time that Darcy yelled “Drive!”

Later, Darcy would say that it was a movie-type, fast, furious and dangerous race that ensued as Steve and Darcy tore down the roads of Singapore with the MIB cars in full pursuit. Steve would argue that while it was fast and dangerous, it was definitely not movie-type. The adrenaline rush was real, the gunshots were real, the buzz of the helicopter above them was real but most of all the fear that caused Darcy to clutch Steve’s shoulder and gasp whenever a bullet slammed into the car was what made everything more real and less movie-like. In movies, such action sequences were more on the epic side. In real life, there was nothing epic about it at all. It was all doom and destruction and fear of getting hit.

“Why are they shooting at us?” shouted Darcy angrily.

“They probably have orders to shoot me at sight,” replied Steve, narrowly missing a car coming from the opposite direction. He swiped a hand down his face, tearing off his fake beard and tossing it on the dashboard.

“But what about me?”

“Collateral damage.” His voice was bitter and Darcy couldn’t help but realize that he probably knew more about collateral damage than anyone else.

Once they passed the trafficked roads and ventured on the highway to the Tuas checkpoint, Steve said, “I need to take down that chopper.” It had been shooting at them nonstop and now that they weren’t in danger of accidentally bombing any Singaporean citizens, the chopper would have no problem pulling out the big guns on their car.

“Take the wheel,” Steve said suddenly.

Darcy looked at him in apprehension. “What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see,” he said, already letting go of the wheel and climbing into the backseat.

The cab swerved dangerously and Darcy grabbed the steering, crawling into the driver’s seat. She heard a loud clang and looked behind to see Steve holding the unhinged car door with one hand. “I’ll be back, you keep going,” he told her. Looking at his determined face, Darcy had an epiphany and suddenly she knew exactly what he was going to do. It still did not stop her from screaming his name when he jumped out and slid down the road using the car door as shield.

Through the rearview mirror, she saw him get up and run towards the three black SUVs following them. She had never seen him in action before, except on T.V. It was surreal, the way he jumped up on the first SUV’s hood and smashed his fist through the glass, landing a solid punch to the dude driving the vehicle. The SUV abruptly slowed and turned sharply, crashing into its brother that was speeding behind it. There was a loud terrifying sound at the crash and Darcy watched the first SUV somersault down the road several times before exploding. Steve used this as a boost to leap up into the air towards the helicopter.

“Sam!” Darcy yelled into her comm. “Where are you?”

She heard vibrations but couldn’t make out his voice. Shouting Sam’s name again, she stepped onto the accelerator and sped down the road. She couldn’t see Steve anymore but the chopper had stopped shooting at her so she assumed he had got to it.

Her comm. crackled. “Darcy, we’re coming towards you. Keep driving.”

“Steve is not with me,” she cried. “Sam!”

There was a loud boom behind her and Darcy turned just in time to see the chopper crash to the earth and blow up. Something soared through the air and landed heavily on the roof of Darcy’s cab. She screamed and forced herself to keep driving. A second later, a body of a man slid down from the top and fell on the road. Darcy stuck her head out of the window and shouted Steve’s name. He was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn it!” she cursed, debating whether she should go back for him. Had he injured himself in the explosion? Was he still in the helicopter when it went down?

“Darcy,” Sam’s voice sounded in her ear. “You see the jet?”

Up ahead, a large gray colored aircraft came into view and Darcy slammed her foot down on the accelerator, going at full speed. The hatch on the aircraft opened and the ramp came down. Without giving it much thought, she barreled up the ramp and hit the brakes, which caused the cab to swerve and crash into the side of the craft. She pushed open the car door and stumbled out.

“Steve,” she screamed, running to the edge of the ramp and peering down at the destruction on the highway.

There was a heavy metallic sound and the ramp began to close. “No!” she shouted. “Sam, can you hear me? Steve’s not with me. He did not make it. SAM!”

When she got no answer, she yanked off the comm. from her ear and threw it to the ground. Looking around, she saw a lever and ran to it, using all her strength to pull it down. But nothing happened. The jet was now airborne and the ramp was almost shut.

“No, no, no, no!” she chanted, falling to her knees and raining blows on the ramp, not caring if it made her look ridiculous. “Open up! Open up, you big stupid—”

A voice from behind cut her off. “Wow, lil’ sidekick, I didn’t know you cared so much.”


	8. The Safe House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by the wonderful pianobookworm. Don't know what I would do without you.

_“Wow, lil’ sidekick, I didn’t know you cared so much.”_

Darcy gasped and whirled around to find Steve sliding down from the roof of the cab. He swayed a bit but managed to steady himself just enough to not topple over. Breathing heavily and half bent at the waist, he looked completely worn, and yet he found it in himself to laugh at her kneeling on the floor punching the ramp. Darcy stood and marched up to him, raising a hand to perhaps slap him or punch him or maybe gouge his eyes out for giving her a right scare.

Steve caught her hand before she could decide how much pain she wanted to inflict on him. “No violence to the wounded,” he mumbled. Using his grip on her hand, he tugged her towards him and wrapped his arm around her waist.

Darcy inhaled sharply. “Hey, you’re touching me,” she pointed out rather unnecessarily, but she somehow understood the gravity of the situation because she did not make any move to push him away.

He dropped his head on her shoulder and breathed out, “Yes, I am.”

She stood quite still, not knowing how to respond to him. Her hands hung limply at her sides and she took deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heartbeats. When her mind cleared a little, she registered what he had just said. _No violence to the wounded_. Oh God, he was wounded, but where? She looked him over—he was still wearing his jacket and his other hand was clasped tightly around the handle of the cab door, his knuckles white.

“Steve,” she whispered cautiously. “Where are you hurt?”

He mumbled something lowly that was just about audible for Darcy to understand it. Ignoring the feel of his lips against her neck as he spoke, she raised a trembling hand and pushed open his jacket a bit more to reveal a gaping bullet wound on his stomach, right above the waistband of his pants. Blood was oozing out of it, soaking the surrounding area of his t-shirt completely.

“Shit, Steve,” she said softly. “Why aren’t you healing?”

“I can’t unless the bullet is removed.” He raised his head from her shoulder and asked, “Want to do the honors?”

Darcy couldn’t understand how he could joke at a time like this. She shook her head and said, “I’ll call Sam to patch you up.”

As if they were somehow telepathically connected and Sam had heard her say his name, he appeared. A hatch above them opened and Sam slid down the ladder, a smile on his face that vanished the moment he saw blood on Steve’s person.

“Jesus!” he cursed, rushing to them and yanking the t-shirt up to take a look at the wound.

Steve dropped his hand from Darcy’s waist and motioned for her to leave. “Go on up,” he said. “Jane must be waiting for you.”

Darcy shook her head. “No. I want to help.”

Sam turned to look at her. “Get my army knapsack from the trunk, Darce,” he commanded.

Darcy scurried around to the back of the cab and forced open the trunk. She hurried back with Sam’s knapsack in hand. “What do you need?” she asked him.

“There’s a first aid kit inside.”

For the next fifteen minutes, Darcy watched as Sam first painstakingly removed the bullet, cleaned the wound and then patched Steve up with her help. He was shot in the back as well but despite Steve’s insistence that he had just been grazed, Sam ordered him to take off his t-shirt and then proceeded to patch up the graze wound as well. Darcy pulled out a clean t-shirt from Steve’s bag and handed it to him.

“Thanks,” he said.

She merely nodded, finding herself unable to reply with a simple _you’re welcome_. She could feel a hot flush creeping up her neck at the sight of his muscles rippling when he pulled on the t-shirt.

Once they were done, the three of them made their way up the ladder and through the hatch on the ceiling. Steve and Sam made a beeline for the cockpit while Darcy found herself checking out the jet in awe. The interior of the jet was sleek and spacious. Two rows of seats lined the walls facing one another and there was a table in the back corner piled with travel bags. A bow and a quiver of arrows lay on top of the bags. Part of the ceiling was pure glass and when Darcy looked up, she could see the sky.

Darcy had traveled in airplanes before and she had seen on T.V. what private army jets generally looked like but this was something else entirely. Everything from the cockpit to the seats to the speed at which they were going screamed advanced technology and Darcy wondered how the fugitive Avengers had gotten hold of it in the first place.

Jane, who was curled up in one of the seats, pounced on Darcy the minute she saw her enter.

“Oh my God, are you hurt, Darcy?” she asked, her hands roaming over Darcy’s body as if to check for injuries. “Are you okay? Why are you so red?”

Darcy touched her cheek self-consciously, her eyes involuntarily finding Steve. He wasn’t looking at her but judging by the way he stopped speaking mid-sentence and the corner of his lips twitched up a little, she guessed that not only had he heard Jane but that he also knew Darcy was watching him. He did not return her gaze though, opting instead to address the man piloting the aircraft. Darcy immediately recognized him as Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye.

“I’m fine,” she said absently to Jane. “Are you?”

Jane nodded and pointed to a woman who Darcy had completely overlooked in her inspection of the jet. She stood mysteriously in the shadows, her eyes silently appraising Darcy. “That’s Wanda Maximoff,” Jane introduced her. “Ms. Maximoff, this is Darcy, my friend and intern.”

Wanda came up to shake Darcy’s hand, a small smile on her face. “Call me Wanda,” she said. “Ms. Maximoff sounds too formal. We’re going to be living together now.”

Darcy suppressed the sudden spike of apprehension she felt at her words. “I know we are,” she said carefully, “but you make it sound so creepy.”

Wanda smirked. “I have that effect on people.”

“She’s a crazy bitch.” A man came up to stand behind Wanda and tugged on her hair playfully. “She mind-zapped me once and I didn’t wake up for a day. Had all kinds of ugly nightmares.”

Wanda elbowed the man. “You’re too easy, Scott. And don’t touch my hair.”

“I won’t if you promise to not touch my mind.” He looked at Darcy and nodded, his eyes shining with mischief. “Hi, I’m Ant-Man.”

Wanda rolled her eyes and elbowed him again. “You’re so full of yourself.”

The aircraft swooped with sudden turbulence and Wanda instinctively grabbed Darcy’s hand to steady her. Darcy didn’t have time to shoot her a grateful look before the jet shook again and Jane tumbled into the seat behind her. Scott was holding on to one of the hanging straps on the ceiling with one hand while he held Wanda upright with another.

“Clint,” he shouted angrily. “Cut it out!”

“I can’t help the turbulence, Scott!”

It went on for a few more seconds before the jet stabilized and Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. She looked down at a pale Jane and asked, “All right?”

“I don’t know what I felt more, fear or excitement,” Jane replied after a moment of silence.

Still clutching Darcy’s hand in hers, Wanda pulled her upfront to the cockpit where Steve, Sam and Clint were already continuing their previous conversation as if nothing had happened. Jane and Scott followed. Politely extracting her fingers from Wanda’s, Darcy tucked her hand behind her back. Wanda raised her eyebrows but did not comment.

Sam was speaking. “… and the bomb went off before I could neutralize him.”

“It’s strange how prepared they were for us,” said Clint. “They brought a helicopter, Steve.”

“Someone must have found out and tipped them with our location.”

Darcy was a bit confused by the hint of accusation in Sam’s voice. His emphasis on the word ‘someone’ wasn’t lost on Clint, who shared a glance with Scott and Wanda. Steve, however, merely clenched his teeth and maintained his silence. The phone in his pocket beeped and he took it out to glance at it surreptitiously while Sam continued with his story. Darcy’s eyes widened but she wisely kept her mouth shut.

“Set a course for Thailand.”

Sam stopped speaking and looked at Steve in confusion. “Again? But I thought we were going to…”

“Change of plans,” revealed Steve. “We’re going to Samui Island.”

“What’s in Samui Island?” Clint asked.

“Are we on stealth mode?” inquired Steve. Clint nodded and repeated his question. “A safe house,” replied Steve. “A really safe… safe house. We can stay there for some time.”

Darcy noticed how both Clint and Sam nodded and didn’t ask any more questions, as if Steve’s word was good enough for them. Clint set their course for Samui and put the jet on autopilot. After that, the journey passed by quickly without any real conversation. Steve slumped down on his seat and closed his eyes, a hand resting on his stomach wound. Wanda and Scott sat silently beside each other, Scott poking her every once in a while to get a rise out of her. Clint and Sam spoke in low tones. At one point, Clint turned and looked directly at Darcy and Sam followed suit. Darcy couldn’t shake off the feeling that they had been talking about her.

Jane sat beside Darcy, fussing over her and telling her they had seen the whole scene from a distance—Steve jumping out of the cab and Darcy speeding down the road while he blew up the SUVs.

“Clint said we couldn’t risk the jet being spotted lest the chopper attack us, so we had no choice but to wait for Steve to bring it down before we came for you. Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Jane asked for the hundredth time.

Darcy sighed. Her elbow ached. The side of her head hurt and she was pretty sure it was because of that time when Steve had swerved sharply to the right to avoid a vehicle and Darcy had ended up being slammed against the glass window.

She shrugged and put on a smile for Jane. “Steve was shot, Jane,” she said quietly. “No pain in my joint is ever going to be worse than that.”

Jane frowned but thankfully fell silent. Darcy chanced a glance at Steve to see that his eyes were open and he was looking at her, his gaze speculative. She maintained eye contact with him for a while before turning her nose up and looking away, knowing it would bring a smile to his face.

The island of Koh Samui was tiny but beautiful. Darcy rushed to the front of the jet, situating herself beside Clint, to gaze down at the white sandy beaches and the wonderful scenery from the top. A low squeal escaped her lips that had Clint grinning at her.

“Fan of the ocean?” he asked.

Darcy nodded. “I love watching the water.”

“Me too.”

Steve directed Clint to an exceedingly isolated area to the north of the island and then pointed in the distance, saying, “That’s it, that place there.”

Clint looked and shook his head. “Where? I can’t see anything.”

“Don’t tell me you can’t see that house in the distance. That’s the only thing visible for miles.”

Darcy knew the moment Clint realized where Steve was pointing because, despite being ensconced in between a cluster of trees, the house really was the only thing around for miles. But Darcy could understand the archer’s confusion as he turned to look at Steve incredulously. “That’s no house. That’s a fucking villa, Steve!”

“It’s on the beach. Why does it have a swimming pool on the terrace?” Scott piped up from behind them.

Sam whistled as he, too, came to see what the fuss was about. Jane exclaimed, “Oh, please tell me we’re staying here!”

Wanda merely watched with wide eyes. “Are you serious?” she finally said.

The jet hovered over the villa as all seven of them ogled it from above. “What am I supposed to do?” Clint asked uncertainly.

“Are you sure people aren’t already living here?” Wanda asked Steve.

Steve ignored her. “Let me out and I’ll open the underground garage for you. You can lower the jet in there.”

“Wait, there’s an underground garage?”

“Whose villa is this?”

“Are we breaking and entering? Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

“Are you sure we aren’t trespassing?”

Darcy watched as Steve sighed, opened the hatch and proceeded to climb down the ladder. He jumped the thirty feet to the sand—Sam rolled his eyes—and then disappeared behind the house. A minute later, the sand on the far side of the villa began to part and a large trapdoor opened up in the ground. Clint hesitantly lowered the jet into the garage and all of them stumbled over each other to walk down the ramp.

Steve appeared out of nowhere and motioned for them to follow him. There was an elevator in the garage leading up to the villa and all seven of them piled in. When the doors opened and Darcy saw the interior, her eyes almost bugged out of their sockets. A variety of curse words filled the air as everyone swore out loud at the sight.

They had stepped into a large living room area, elegantly furnished and washed in white and hues of gray. It contained three lush couches arranged in a wide U shape facing a widescreen television; a couple of wheeled recliner chairs that Darcy immediately claimed with her eyes as hers; a beanbag in a corner; a wide shelf on which the T.V. was placed that housed the DVD player and the sound system; and another shelf where almost hundreds of DVDS were arranged neatly in stacks. There was a sizeable marble table in the center of the couches on which sat a remote control with all sorts of buttons on it. Darcy saw ‘curtains close’ and ‘security lock’ on the remote before her greedy eyes roamed around to take more in.

There was an open kitchen space on one side of this living area, with a long L shaped platform and a kitchen island which had about half a dozen stools lining it making it seem like it was also used as the dining table. And finally, Darcy’s eyes landed on a walkway—a slope of sorts—that led to the upper floor of the villa. She noticed several doors on that floor and was sure that they were bedrooms. Another slope led from that floor to the terrace. The entire villa was clean and shiny and looked like a rich man’s paradise.

Everyone was scattered around the area, looking at various things. Clint picked up the remote and studied it suspiciously. Wanda was standing by the T.V. with a big frown on her face. Jane and Scott were checking the fridge and the kitchen cabinets.

“Fully stocked,” Jane informed them.

Sam ran a hand over the recliner chair and looked at Steve in confusion. “Steve, what is this?”

Clint looked up from the remote. “I recognize this.” Darcy was surprised to note the open accusation in his tone.

“I know this T.V.,” Wanda stated quietly. “There’s a similar one at the compound.”

“This is Starktech,” declared Clint, his voice rising. “What the hell, Steve? Where are we?”

Steve hadn’t moved away from the elevator. He looked at all the angry and confused faces and took a deep breath. “This is an off-record Stark Industries manufactured safe house,” he divulged. “To be specific, this is Tony’s house.”


	9. Moment of Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, pianobookworm. Your honest critique truly helped me shape this chapter. Team Avengers for the win!

A shocked silence followed Steve’s declaration. Clint and Wanda were looking at Steve as if he had somehow betrayed them. Sam was most definitely upset and Scott looked on in disbelief. Darcy sidled to Jane’s side and both women watched the Avengers showdown from the corner.

Clint – “Why, Steve? Why did you bring us here?”

Wanda – “Have you gone mad? This is no safe house. It’s a trap!”

Scott – “We need to get out of here. I’m not going back to that raft.”

Sam – “Stark was the one who set those agents on us in Singapore and you want us to hide in _his_ house?”

Steve looked at him sharply. “Why do you immediately assume Tony sent those agents?”

“How else would they have known where to find us?”

“Jane Foster is a well-known name in the science community,” reminded Steve. “Anyone could have found out she was speaking at a conference.”

“Yes, but how did they know _we_ were going to be there?” Sam argued. “They wouldn’t have sent a truck load of agents _and_ a chopper just to bring Jane in.”

“Selvig,” Steve said immediately. “He called Darcy a week ago. He was worried. He could have told someone Jane was missing in action.”

Clint snorted. “Someone meaning Tony. Selvig works at the compound, Steve. Or have you forgotten?”

Steve’s eyes flashed and Darcy could tell he was beginning to get angry.

“Have you people been following the news?” he asked, his voice hard. “Do you know what kind of work Tony is doing out there?”

“Just because he is organizing peace missions and building hospitals doesn’t mean…” began Clint but Steve cut him off forcefully.

“It means everything! That’s what being an Avenger is all about. Saving the world, not just fighting for it.”

Clint clamped his mouth shut, looking slightly guilty. But he maintained his glare on Steve. Wanda came up from behind to lace her fingers through his. There was a brief pause that was broken by Sam’s gentle words.

“You’re right, of course, but Steve, we can’t trust Stark. He’s the reason we went to prison. He tried his level best to bring us in.”

“No!” said Steve, his voice rising. “He tried his level best to _keep us together_. He was the only one of us who was terrified of the Avengers breaking apart.”

“He thought he was doing the right thing but he wasn’t,” said Clint.

“And you think Sam and I were doing the right thing?” countered Steve. He turned to Sam and asked, “Do you really think Tony wouldn’t have listened to us if we had pulled him aside and told him about the other Winter Soldiers?”

Sam seemed to hesitate. “We tried to tell him…”

“At the airport, having gathered our team, throwing it in his face that we were all but ready to fight.”

“So what, you’re saying that we made a mistake? That we fought for nothing?” There was an edge to Sam’s voice that Darcy had never heard before.

Steve shook his head. “I’m saying that I’ve always believed in fighting together as a team. Maybe if we had informed Tony of our plan, he would have somehow convinced the authorities of the danger and we would all be together as a _team_ , not broken apart like shattered glass.”

It seemed like in the past few months of running from the law, Steve had given their situation a lot of thought since he was fighting for Tony Stark so passionately. Darcy wondered if Stark felt the same remorse that Steve did, considering the mistakes the billionaire had made since the introduction of the Accords. She also wondered if Steve knew something that they didn’t. She couldn’t count the number of times she had seen him obsessing over the burner phone which he always carried around with him. So what was it that had softened him up to understand Stark’s side of the argument? What was it that made him question the right from the wrong? Because, as Darcy could see it, there was no right or wrong in what had happened two and a half months ago. Differing beliefs and opinions of everyone involved was what motivated them to do what they had done. And while it looked like Steve still considered Stark his friend, it was no doubt a big step for him to accept that he, Steve, had made miscalculations as well.

Sam’s tired sigh broke through Darcy’s thoughts. “That’s a lot of what-ifs, Steve. I think we did the right thing. I also think that we were right in not signing the Accords.”

“I think that, too,” assured Steve. “But I also think that we made a lot of mistakes… both sides. We made the mistake of not trusting Tony and Rhodey to keep us safe, to come with us to Siberia. And Tony made the mistake of trusting Ross. I’m not faulting the stand that he took. He thought he was doing the right thing. I’m just saying our opinions differed and he chose the other side. A thing like that shouldn’t have caused the disaster that was the airport fight and the consequent fall out.”

They didn’t know if Steve was right or not, but his words somehow rang true. None of this would have happened if Steve had surrendered and let Bucky run or if both of them had told the truth about the Winter Soldiers and then surrendered. Because if Ross tried anything untoward, if he tried to imprison Steve and hurt Bucky, Tony wouldn’t have let it slide that easily. He had gone to Siberia, hadn’t he? He had discovered the truth about someone framing Bucky. Similarly, he, Rhodey and Natasha would have fought the government. Tony Stark had always held a certain power over the government and the press. He would have made things happen. Maybe it would have taken him some time but he would have stopped things from getting worse. Because if there was one thing that Steve was absolutely right about, it was that Tony was terrified of the Avengers falling apart, of them getting hurt or dying. Clint and Steve already knew that, having known Tony the longest. But more recently, it was Wanda who had forced herself in Tony’s head and personally experienced the result of that fear.

Despite everything, despite all these thoughts going around in their heads, none of the Avengers looked entirely convinced. Clint and Wanda were still visibly unhappy. Sam had his face in his hand. And Scott piped up with a question that was on all their minds, “Why are you suddenly taking his side, Steve?”

Instead of getting defensive, Steve’s anger slowly melted at the question and he smiled a small smile. “Because he’s taking our side, Scott,” he said.

When Wanda let out an irritated huff and Sam still looked confused, Steve explained, “You remember after we left Wakanda, we stayed in Kenya for a few days?” The others nodded and Steve continued, “Ross’ men caught up with us and we found ourselves surrounded?” He waited patiently for the others to agree. “And then this jet appeared out of nowhere and we were able to escape?”

“T’Challa sent that jet, didn’t he?” Sam asked.

“No,” said Steve. “Tony did.”

“What?” Clint exclaimed in disbelief and then shook his head resolutely. “No, I can recognize Starktech anywhere. The jet is not Tony’s creation.”

Steve turned to him. “Yes, you’re right. It’s S.H.I.E.L.D.’s. It’s an old S.H.I.E.L.D. jet that you trusted blindly because you are so familiar with S.H.I.E.L.D. technology, aren’t you, Agent Barton?”

When Clint didn’t immediately say anything, Wanda took his side. “How can you trust Stark? How do you _know_ this?”

“From Natasha. Also Tony… he’s been in touch,” Steve paused and bit his lip before adding, “where necessary.”

“Great,” mumbled Scott, throwing up his hands. “And how do you know this isn’t some clever ploy to—”

“Stop right there,” Steve interrupted coolly. “Since we’re on the topic of clever ploys, the jet isn’t the only thing Tony has helped us with. Who do you think reminded Natasha about Jane and forced her to track Jane down? Who do you think tipped me off about the agents at the conference? Who do you think gave me the coordinates of this villa? Who,” he paused to look meaningfully at Sam and Scott, “do you think got to your families and transferred them to Clint’s farm?”

His voice was gruff by the time he finished speaking. “He’s been helping us all along, guys. All along. So yes, I trust him. I trust Tony.”

A heavy silence fell over the room and Darcy could feel goosebumps erupting onto her skin. Beside her, Jane’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. She squeezed Darcy’s hand but maintained her gaze on the Avengers.

Wanda looked as if she had been slapped and all the fight seemed to leave Clint’s body as he slumped down on the marble table. Nobody moved and the silence seemed to stretch on as everyone tried to fathom the extent of their ignorance and comprehend what Steve had just said. Darcy was beginning to think that they were all going to stand there looking numb when Clint’s soft voice reached them.

“I called him a futurist. I thought… I thought he had turned on us. How could I think that?”

Steve looked on unsympathetically. Sam and Scott shook themselves out of their trance and went up to stand beside Clint and Wanda.

“I insulted him as well,” Scott said, sounding so grave that for a moment Darcy couldn’t believe he was the same person who had introduced himself as Ant-Man on the jet. All the mischief was gone from his eyes.

Sam knelt down by Clint’s feet and placed a hand on his knee. He didn’t say anything but when he turned back to Steve, his eyes were red.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Steve?” he asked. “Why did you let us believe Stark was after us?”

Steve looked down. “I… I was…” he stammered. “I thought if I told you the truth, I’d have to tell the whole truth.”

“And what’s the whole truth?” Sam questioned. “What else _is_ there?”

“The fight in Siberia,” Steve said quietly. “Where Bucky and I fought Tony and left him injured in the snow.”

“Steve,” Sam said gently. “We know about that. It’s okay. He didn’t die, did he? He’s fine now.”

Unsurprisingly, it was Clint who understood what Steve was trying to say. “You never told us why you fought Tony,” he intoned. “Just that you had another fight and then escaped with Barnes.”

Darcy’s eyes flew to Steve. She suddenly remembered what he had told her on the cruise ship. _I kept something from him. He will never forgive me for what I did_. Steve’s big secret. Darcy had a feeling it wasn’t going to remain a secret anymore.

“Bucky killed Tony’s parents.”

And it was out there.

Wanda’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Are you fucking with us?” asked Scott.

Steve shook his head. “There was a video,” he said, his eyes glazing over slightly as he remembered. “Camera footage of the Winter Soldier murdering Howard and Maria. Tony… he saw it.”

“Did you know?” asked Wanda and judging by the way Steve’s eyes snapped to hers, Darcy wondered if maybe Tony Stark had asked him the same question that fateful day in Siberia.

“Yes.” Steve’s voice seemed to bounce off the walls in an echo that hung over them all for a few shocked seconds. Then—

“Shit!” said Clint.

“Oh my God,” whispered Wanda.

“Jesus, Steve,” mumbled Sam, shaking his head and averting his eyes.

“It wasn’t Bucky’s fault.”

“No wonder Stark attacked you,” remarked Scott.

“But it wasn’t Bucky’s fault!” repeated Steve forcefully. “He didn’t know what he was doing. He was brainwashed.”

Sam nodded. “We know, man. We don’t blame him.”

Clint looked up and nodded as well. “Who would know better than me?” he said ruefully, trying and failing to smile. “But … shit, I can hardly imagine what Tony must have felt.”

It seemed like Steve couldn’t stay away from them any longer. He made his way to his team, to his friends, and settled down beside them. Sam placed an arm around his shoulder and smiled. Wanda kissed his cheek and apologized for doubting him, Scott sat down on his other side and placed a comforting hand on Steve’s knee, Clint took the hand that Steve offered him and the archer’s eyes spoke volumes, no words needed.

The scene was oddly intimate and Darcy felt like she was intruding on a private moment but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight that the Avengers made. It was inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time.

It was something she had never experienced before.


	10. The Detachment Hypothesis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of the chapter is a deliberate attempt to remind you of the awesomeness that's The Big Bang Theory. Trashy TV shows are good for our soul. Not that the show has anything to do with this story.
> 
> Chapter proofread by the amazing pianobookworm.

They spent the first day exploring the villa and its surroundings. It seemed like the entire area was Stark property because the beach on which the villa was situated was completely deserted. It was so beautiful and serene that Darcy had a hard time turning away from the ocean. But given how tired they all were, they prioritized settling into their new home.

Steve and Sam drove out the practically destroyed cab from the jet and emptied the trunk of all their belongings. Jane and Darcy went inside the jet and gathered the luggage of their new companions. Clint and Wanda whipped them all up with some simple peanut butter sandwiches and Scott jumped into the swimming pool and refused to get out for the next hour.

“He gets this way sometimes,” Wanda explained to Darcy. “He becomes nostalgic and starts remembering his daughter… and then spends an hour alone brooding. You’ll get used to it.”

They were all unusually quiet as they worked and ate, largely in tune with each other’s movements but still quiet, not having the words to express exactly what they were feeling. There was a sizeable amount of guilt and shame in the air, but there was also gratitude and the feeling of safety. It was only when Jane yawned loudly that they were shaken out of their thoughts and decided to go to bed.

There were four bedrooms on the upper floor and that meant they would have to share. Wanda immediately walked up to Clint and stood beside him. He put an arm around her shoulder and kissed the side of her head. Scott jumped on Sam.

“You’re mine now,” he said with a fake evil laugh that made Sam roll his eyes.

“I’ll share with the bug,” Sam told Steve. “You take the last room.”

Steve opened his mouth to protest but Clint interrupted him with a smile. “It’s fine, Cap. You deserve a room of your own.”

“Jane, Darcy, you good?” Sam asked. Jane nodded and Darcy gave him a thumbs up.

“Good,” said Clint, waving a tired hand at everyone. “I’m off to bed.”

With his arm still around Wanda, they both pushed open the door to the first room and disappeared inside. Darcy stared after them in confusion. Not that it was her place to judge but wasn’t Clint married?

Sam seemed to read Darcy’s mind. “They’ve got a weird connection, Clint and Wanda,” he explained. “He’s like her father or brother or… we don’t really know. But Clint recruited her and Wanda is very protective of him.”

Darcy didn’t know what to say to that, so she merely nodded. Sam and Scott disappeared in their own room, Scott remarking, “Who you calling bug, birdman?”

Darcy, Jane and Steve were the only ones standing outside. Jane smiled mysteriously and promptly walked away, leaving the two alone. They were silent for a while, then Steve spoke.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about what you did in Singapore.”

For a second, Darcy had no idea what he was talking about, then she remembered and her eyes immediately narrowed. He was smiling unrepentantly and Darcy wondered how she had forgotten about his talent to annoy her. All he had to do was argue with the Avengers, show some friendship and maybe shed a few tears (not that she saw anything) and she was all mush. Nope, she was not making that mistake again. Steve Rogers was a little shit and he would remain a little shit.

“I didn’t do anything,” she huffed stubbornly. “ _You_ did… something.”

“What did I do exactly?”

Darcy opened her mouth to reply but clamped it shut, realizing his trick. “You’re such a jerk,” she told him crossly, turning around and storming away into her room.

 

The villa soon turned into a haven for them. It felt like they were isolated from the whole world, and nothing and no one could find them even if they tried. It did not take much time getting used to having Jane and Darcy with them. Somehow, after that first day, after everything had come out into the open, they all felt closer to one another. Scott and Wanda were back to bickering with each other. Clint spent a lot of time on the villa compound, shooting arrow after arrow into trees. Steve and Sam discovered a state of the art gym beside the garage and often disappeared to spar with each other. Jane spent her time going through Stark’s collection of physics books and Darcy lounged on the recliners, thanking the fates for such a beautiful residence.

They spent a lot of time together as well, mostly watching movies and frolicking on the beach. Everyone noticed how much Darcy enjoyed looking at the water. But while they all rolled around in the sand and jumped into the waves, Darcy merely sat far away on a beach mat, her legs daintily tucked underneath her and her hair blowing in the wind, as she watched Sam and Clint throw a Frisbee, and Wanda mind-zap Scott, making him thrash around in the water until Jane took pity on him and dragged him out. She saw Steve sitting on the wet sand, letting the waves lap around him while he laughed at the antics of his teammates. She would observe and giggle but she never joined them.

Scott asked her one day, “Why don’t you come in the water with us?”

“I don’t like getting my feet dirty.”

Darcy had no idea her response would garner such outrage.

“You mean to tell us you’ve never walked barefoot in the sand?” Sam looked at her with wide eyes.

“Never felt the waves on your feet?” questioned Wanda.

“Never made sandcastles on the beach?” continued Scott.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “What’s so special about all that anyway?” she asked rhetorically and Scott gasped as if she had wounded him. “I’d rather stay away. I’m happy watching from afar.”

Clint shook his head and claimed, “You’re missing out, Darce.”

Darcy scoffed. “You wish, Barton.”

 

Jane and Steve were preparing dinner one day while Sam pretended to supervise when Wanda came to talk to Jane. The younger woman had been outside watching Clint unsuccessfully trying to teach Darcy how to shoot an arrow. The archer was having a hard time with her, especially since Darcy wouldn’t let him hold her arms and adjust her grip on the bow. Wanda stood with Scott for a while as he laughed at Darcy’s antics and then she had gotten bored and left them at it.

“Jane,” she said, getting Jane’s attention. “I can’t help but notice this thing about Darcy where she doesn’t let anyone touch her.”

Sam looked up from his crossword puzzle. “I’ve noticed that, too,” he said, looking questioningly at Jane, who was carefully chopping carrots.

Steve didn’t comment but he found he really wanted to know the answer to this as well.

“It’s not that she doesn’t like to touch or hug people,” replied Jane absently, her attention focused on chopping. “She’s just protecting herself, that’s all.”

Steve exchanged a glance with Sam. “Protecting herself from what, Jane?” he asked gently.

Jane looked up to find all three staring at her expectantly. “Well,” she began hesitantly. “Darcy hasn’t met a lot of decent people in her life. Because of her… uh… physical assets, people have often assumed the freedom to tease her about her figure, mishandle her and make inappropriate advances towards her.”

Steve found himself gripping the knife tightly and a vein in his jaw ticked. Sam and Wanda, too, looked disturbed.

Jane continued, “So she has learned to become a bit detached that way. It’s not like she’s completely averse to touching. She lets you near her, Sam.”

Sam shook his head. “Yeah but she won’t let me hug her.” He narrowed his eyes at Steve suspiciously. “But she let Steve hold her. That day on the jet… you were definitely holding her close, Steve. I saw you.”

Steve pursed his lips and looked at Jane for an explanation, ignoring the way his heart skipped a beat at Sam’s words. Jane smiled at Steve.

“She may have started out hating you,” she conceded. “But she trusts you, I guess. Otherwise if it had been someone else at the cruise port holding her like that, she would have kicked and screamed and punched, but she just hung limply at your side, didn’t she? I was surprised but it makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Steve couldn’t stop himself from asking, so focused on Jane that he didn’t notice Wanda sneak a chunk of cheese from his plate.

Jane snatched the plate of cheese out of Wanda’s reach and placed it next to the chopped carrots. “When Darcy started interning for Erik and me, it took her quite some time to get used to us. Erik, he’s a very sensitive person—he likes to hug—and I’m ashamed to admit it but sometimes, after going on science benders, I would need comfort and friendship as well. Darcy understood that but, at that time, just out of university and out of a bad relationship, she was hesitant with us.” Jane paused and shrugged, her fingers absently tracing the surface of the platform. “She started small. She would run a hand down my back, then she started holding my hand and then one day she came up to me and hugged me and—woah—let me tell you, Darcy gives excellent hugs! I don’t know how to say this without it sounding odd but… she’s incredibly soft and pliant.”

Sam cursed comically. “We’re missing out on all the excellent hugs, Wanda,” he remarked. “Steve, here, is all set but we need to up our game, start making her trust us.”

Wanda nodded seriously. “How do we do it?”

His crossword puzzle forgotten, Sam stood up thoughtfully. “We may have to shower her with gifts and praises.”

“Maybe teach her self-defense?” suggested Wanda.

Sam rubbed his hands together. “Oooh, good idea.” He placed an arm around Wanda’s shoulder and both walked away, no doubt discussing more ways of getting Darcy to trust them.

After they were gone, Steve turned to an amused Jane and asked grimly, “You said bad relationship. Darcy wasn’t abused, was she?”

“Not that I know of,” Jane replied with a frown. “She would have told me.”

Steve nodded, satisfied. Jane placed a hand over his. “She’s gotten better at this, Steve. She’s not damaged or anything, so please don’t worry too much. Just be yourself with her. She’ll let you in.”

Steve settled himself on a stool and let Jane prepare the rest of the dinner. He couldn’t help but think that Darcy had already started letting him in. He remembered the day he had met her. He had riled her up and she had pushed him, several times. He didn’t know how but he had gotten under her skin from the start, she had trusted him before she even knew it herself. Granted, violence was a different matter entirely and didn’t fall into the same category (considering how Darcy hit Scott all the time) but she had let Steve invade her space so many times that he had lost count. All he had to do now was to keep pushing until he broke all her defenses so she would fully let him in.

And Steve knew just how to achieve that.


	11. The Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by pianobookworm. She's smart and lovely and absolutely amazing!

Over the course of the following weeks, Darcy found herself surrounded by overfriendly Avengers. Sam and Clint insisted she learn self-defense because they were worried about her and wanted her to be prepared for the worst possible situations. Every morning, they would herd Darcy away to the gym and show her different ways of neutralizing a person. It was extremely tiring and her entire body ached after the work outs but at least she was learning something useful.

Wanda, with Jane’s help, kept Darcy busy by regularly planning girl activities like truth or dare, charades and Pictionary among other things. On Darcy’s insistence, she had also started teaching her Sokovian profanity which the curvy brunette found more interesting than playing truth or dare.

“Vy gigantskiy govnyuk!” Darcy repeated the words and gave the other woman a questioning look. “Language of Sokovia sounds a lot like Russian.”

“That’s because more than half the words _are_ Russian, especially the bad words,” explained Wanda. “It’s like how Hindi is derived from Sanskrit.”

Darcy nodded despite not having ever heard Hindi before. “What’s next?”

Wanda sat up. “Say truth or dare.”

“Not again,” groaned Darcy, turning pleading eyes to Jane, who merely shrugged. “Fine. Truth.”

“Great. Who was your last boyfriend?”

“Ian Boothby. He was my intern in London.”

“Boring. Who was your boyfriend before Ian Boothby?”

“You’re supposed to ask only one question, Wanda.”

“Okay. That one.”

Darcy looked at Jane, who was now pretending to hide her face behind a book of constellations. Amused and more than a little confused, Darcy replied, “Gareth Adams.”

Wanda looked interested. “Was he your boyfriend at Culver?”

“Isn’t it my turn to ask you a question?”

“Not yet. We’re playing single person truth or dare.”

Darcy narrowed her eyes. “Is that right?”

“Yes. Now, was he your boyfriend at Culver?”

Needless to say, Wanda, Clint and Sam were relentless. Not that it wasn’t fun to be with them, but they drained her physically and emotionally. So whenever she wasn’t punching holes in the gym or playing suspicious single person truth or dare with Wanda and Jane, Darcy found herself seeking Scott’s company. He was the most relaxed of them all, marathoning movies with her and telling her stories about his daughter and his time in prison. Knowing Darcy’s attraction to seashell jewelry, he sometimes brought seashells from the shore and hid them all over the villa for her to find, a silly clue attached to each shell.

As a result of her recent busy schedule, Darcy seldom had time with Steve. She did see him during meals and whenever they all went to the beach, which was rare now that everyone was so bizarrely focused on Darcy’s wellbeing. But every so often, he would crash her self-defense lessons and Darcy would have the hardest time concentrating on Clint’s instructions with Steve working up a sweat over a punching bag just a few feet away.

 

She had taken to watching Jane work her way around the kitchen. It didn’t seem hard – the chopping, the grating, the mixing and the spreading. Darcy decided she could do it just as well as Jane could. Even Steve could prepare a decent meal. If Steve could do it, so could she.

The next day, she plucked a recipe book from the shelf and set about making an English trifle. It looked easy enough. Everyone would love her for making it and maybe she would be able to catch a break from gym torture and the twenty questions about her previous boyfriends and non-boyfriends.

To Darcy’s dismay, the trifle didn’t turn out quite like she had imagined.

“That’s the worst trifle I’ve ever had.”

They were all sitting around the kitchen island, trying and failing to enjoy their Darcy Lewis-prepared dessert.

Darcy glared at Steve. “Why didn’t you throw away your piece then? Why did you eat it?”

“I did throw it away. Look in the bin.”

Clint pushed his plate away with a grimace. “It tastes like feet.”

“What did you put in it, Darce?” asked Sam. “Please don’t tell me there’s beef in there.”

“Oh, beef,” mumbled Wanda, as if she had just solved a particularly difficult puzzle. Her eyes watered from the seemingly awful taste of the dessert.

“Hey, be nice to Darcy,” scolded Jane. “She worked hard to make the trifle.”

She took a bite of her portion, retched violently and then ran to the sink to spit it out and rinse her mouth.

“Hah,” exclaimed Scott, watching Jane with delight. “You were saying?”

Jane turned and shot her friend a sheepish look. “I can say there’s some room for improvement,” she mumbled, making Darcy huff.

“You guys cannot be my friends,” she said crossly. “Friends lie sometimes.”

“Not us,” said Clint, guzzling a can of coke to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth. “We believe in Cap’s way of truth and justice.”

“All right, Clint,” Steve said, rolling his eyes. He turned to Darcy and encouraged, “You can always make us something else.”

Darcy snorted. “Yeah, right. There’s no way I’m making anything else until this whole trifle is eaten.”

“You’re joking, right?” asked Sam.

“Jesus, she’s trying to kill us,” mumbled Scott glumly.

Steve chuckled. “Imagine the headlines,” he joked. “Fugitive Avengers bested by a sidekick.”

There was a hoot of laughter as everyone joined in on the joke, leaving Darcy gobsmacked for a few seconds. She stood up and threatened, “Call me sidekick one more time.”

Steve looked her in the eye and said clearly, “Sidekick.”

A moment later, there was a splat and Steve found his face covered in trifle. He couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it but it was totally worth it, especially when Darcy came up to him and ran her fingers over his face and then into his hair, effectively spreading the dessert everywhere. He would probably have to shower twice before the greasiness of this monster would come out.

“Take that, Captain Jerkwad,” the brunette chirped. “Kiss my ass.”

Steve swiped two fingers over his mouth to get rid of the cream there, and deadpanned, “Tempting, but I’d rather not.”

With the custard cream obscuring his vision, he couldn’t see her face but he didn’t have to. Uttering a rather passionate, “Otva`li, mu`dak!” she stalked away, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

Then, Clint whistled and Wanda smirked, saying, “She told you to fu—”

“I think we can all guess what she told him to do,” Jane interrupted her. Sam sniggered.

“This was the most fun I’ve had in months,” said Scott, clapping his hands.

Steve spent the next hour scrubbing himself clean in the shower. He could hear Wanda congratulating Darcy in the other room for the spontaneous and correct use of the Sokovian curse and he could hear Darcy yell (he decided it was a deliberate attempt to get his attention) “Good, because he’s an ASS!”

A laugh burst forth from him and he couldn’t stop the rush of affection he felt toward Darcy in that moment. She was truly one of a kind. Clashing heads with her was not only funny, it was exciting. They had long since stopped being mean to each other but his attempts to rile her up never ceased, and he looked forward to her response each time. It had almost become a game between the two of them, the constant back and forth, and it somehow made Darcy come alive. She would call him names, sass back at him, throw trifles at him, draw cartoon faces on his t-shirts when he wasn’t in his room, try to steal and hide his burner phone (she never succeeded) and, more often than not, she would randomly pop up in his face and try to land a punch to his nose. He easily blocked her every time but he had noticed how confident she had become about invading his personal space, so he pretended to be unaware whenever she was lurking around, looking for an opportunity to scare him.

 

Natasha arrived one day out of nowhere and without any prior warning. She entered the villa to the sight of the Avengers having lunch. They seemed to be engaged in some kind of a passive food fight while Steve sat on a corner stool and stared at the burner phone in his hand, absently flipping it on and off as he ate. He didn’t have any intention of participating in the food fight, that is, until a piece of toast hit him in the face, snapping him out of his stupor. He regarded those sitting around the kitchen island with narrowed eyes.

“Who did that?”

Scott subtly pointed at Darcy, who was pretending to eat her salad like a good little girl. She looked up when Steve said her name and he was met with an expression of such innocence that his heart melted. They stared at each other for a while, sizing the other up and then Steve abruptly stood up.

“That’s it, lil’ sidekick, you’re done for,” he said.

She shrieked and tried to hide behind Sam as Steve advanced towards her. Around them, the food fight commenced with more enthusiasm. It was then that Natasha decided to make her presence known.

“Isn’t this cozy?”

The fork slipped from Clint’s fingers as he turned around at the new voice. “Nat?” he mumbled, staring at her as if she was a hallucination. “Nat!” he exclaimed more confidently, striding towards her and enveloping her in a tight hug.

Everyone crowded around them, murmuring excitedly and asking questions at once.

Sam – “What are you doing here, Natasha?”

Steve – “How did you get in here?”

Jane – “Is that Natasha Romanoff?”

Scott – “A fellow bug, what an unpleasant surprise.”

Wanda – “Does Tony know you’re here?”

Darcy – “May I have your autograph?”

Natasha laughed and pushed at Clint when he clung to her adorably. She answered Steve first, “I have security clearance to this place.” Looking around at all the curious faces, she smiled mischievously. “I came to check up on you losers. And I come bearing gifts for everyone.”

She bent down to heft a large red sack in her hands.

Clint stared at the festive looking sack and said, “Seriously, Nat, what are you, Santa Claus?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Do you see me wearing a crimson outfit and a beard? No, it’s just Tony being Tony.”

Steve’s ears perked up. “Tony sent these gifts?” he asked hopefully. “Is he coming, too?”

Natasha shot him an apologetic look. “He wanted to.” But they all knew it was a lie. “Anyway… Clint, these are for you.” She tossed him a bunch of arrows held together neatly by a red ribbon that said ‘Legolas.’

He ran his fingers over the arrows in surprise. “Cable arrows,” he murmured, showing them excitedly to Jane, who was standing closest to him.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Great. Now there’s no stopping him swinging from tree to tree like Tarzan.”

Natasha looked inside the bag again. By the odd rounded shape of the bag, everyone had already guessed the one thing that was definitely inside but they all waited patiently for their gifts as Natasha dug inside and extracted two hefty envelopes. She tossed one to Scott and the other to Sam.

“Letters from your families,” she told them. “There are photographs in there well. Clint, the Bartons are exceptionally hospitable and the Wilsons never want to leave.”

Clint laughed. “That’s nice to hear.”

Sam and Scott tore into their respectable envelopes, their faces a mesh of glee and gratitude. Scott pulled out a drawing that his daughter had made for him and showed it proudly to Sam. Natasha’s arm disappeared into the bag again and this time came up with a small orange ball and a well-used journal. She tossed the ball to Wanda, who caught it and studied it in bemusement.

Natasha sighed when the brunette gave her a questioning look. “Okay, I don’t really know what that is,” she admitted. “Tony spouted out some scientific nonsense that completely went over my head. But from what I could understand, it’s sort of an elastic ball. It’s very flexible… um… stretchable. So you can practice your energy manipulation powers on it… you know, if you want to shape matter and stuff. Gah. Okay, long story short, it won’t break. Do your best with it.”

Wanda looked amazed. She raised her hand over the ball and for a second her fingers glowed red before Scott angrily exclaimed, “Not now, you witch! None of us want to get accidentally zapped.” Wanda stopped but sent him a rude hand gesture.

The journal was for Jane, who immediately started flipping through it with interest. It was filled with photos and handwriting that could only be Tony’s.

“It contains Tony’s research on the infinity stones,” Natasha informed Jane with a smile. “He wants you to take a look at it and he wants to discuss it with you.” She pulled out a small phone from her pocket and handed it to Jane. “He says he’ll call.”

Steve started. “What?”

Clint couldn’t help himself either. “What about us?” he demanded. “Tony is an ass if he thinks we aren’t going to attempt to call him from Jane’s phone.”

Natasha shot him a dry look. “You’ve already been sneaking him messages from Steve’s burner phone, Clint.”

“What?” Steve repeated, stumped.

Clint looked unapologetically at Steve. He pointed to himself and said, “World class spy and assassin. You wouldn’t have found out even if you had trained a camera on your phone.” Steve glared at him but before he could open his mouth to voice his displeasure, Clint turned to Natasha and asked, “How did you know about that?”

“He told me.” She looked at Clint, Sam, Scott and Wanda in turn. “He told me to tell you all to stop sending him apologies and messages of love and gratitude. He is very cross about it and grumbles a lot when he gets a message.”

“Quit exaggerating. We don’t send him messages of love and gratitude. I mean, not every time—”

“Have you _all_ been sneaking away with my phone?”

“Just Clint,” supplied Wanda unhelpfully. “But he lets us use it.”

Steve turned his angry gaze on Sam. “What about you?”

“Sorry, man,” Sam said. “I wanted to thank him for what he did for my family.”

Steve threw his hands up in the air. “Great, just great. I’m the only one not using it.”

Darcy giggled. “That’s because you’re being a loser about it. He doesn’t want to talk to me. He will never forgive me,” she mimed. “Give us all a break!”

Steve was torn between being offended and being amused. Finally, he narrowed his eyes at Darcy and said one word. “Singapore.” That shut her up effectively and she proceeded to hide her face behind the curtain of her hair.

“What happened in Singapore?” Jane and Scott asked at the same time.

“You don’t have to apologize, Steve,” said Natasha gently. “If he was still holding a grudge, he wouldn’t be helping you at all. Yes, he’s hurt and he mopes around most days but that’s because he realizes his mistakes… just like you did.”

Clint snorted. “Does Tony’s moping entail staring at his burner phone like it is the sun and moon?” He was looking at the redhead but it was clearly a jab at Steve, who glared at the archer.

“You know what, Barton…”

“Well, he _does_ carry it around everywhere…” Natasha trailed away suggestively, making Steve pause in his retaliation.

She smiled complacently and then proceeded to pitch something small and black towards Darcy. “We didn’t know you would tag along with Foster. We did quite some research on you and since a certain someone here can’t seem to keep his hands off you, Tony made this. He thought it would be a fitting gift for you.”

Darcy didn’t seem to register the obvious jibe at Steve as she looked down at the taser in her hands in surprise. “Tony Stark made this for me?” she whispered, looking up at Natasha. Steve couldn’t help his eyes from raking over her face and taking in her expression of wide-eyed wonder. His fingers itched with the desire to touch her.

Wanda beat him to it. The younger woman placed a tentative hand on Darcy’s and said, “It’s really nice, Darcy.”

Darcy flipped her hand to squeeze Wanda’s fingers. “Oh, isn’t it just?” she nearly squealed, maintaining her grip on Wanda as she gushed over her shiny, new toy.

Once the shock wore off, Wanda threw a triumphant look at the men over Darcy’s shoulder. Scott mouthed ‘Dirty cheater’ and handed a wad of bills to Sam, who grinned and stuffed the money into his pocket. Steve noticed the exhange and rolled his eyes at Jane, who didn’t know whether she should be happy or offended. Apparently, getting Darcy to trust them had evolved into a silly betting game.

Smiling a bit at the sight before her, Natasha thrust her hand into her Santa bag one last time and pulled out Steve’s shield. “I believe this is yours, Captain,” she said, handing the shield to Steve.

Steve slid his palm over the surface of his shield, his chest puffing out as he took a deep shaky breath. “Thank you.”

Natasha placed a hand over his. “Don’t thank me.”

“Did he… did he say anything?” Steve pressed. “Did he have a message for me?”

When Natasha shook her head, his face fell. She felt bad for him. “If it’s any consolation, I know he regrets his actions in Siberia,” she told him. “And I know he’s sorry he asked you to give up your shield. He was acting out because he felt betrayed.”

“Did he say that to you?” Steve asked quietly.

“Not in so many words but…”

There was a heavy silence as Steve looked at his shield and everyone else looked at Steve. Then Clint clapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder and laughed. “Cheer up, Cap. That’s Tonyspeak for _I love you, too_.”

Steve snorted and just like that, the atmosphere lightened again. One by one, everyone made their way to the couches to admire and/or read their presents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's see if anyone can guess where the trifle incident is inspired from.


	12. "Trust me on this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter proofread by pianobookroom. Nothing I can say or do will ever be enough to thank her for the help she has given me on this story. She's an amazing beta reader and an even more amazing person.

Steve watched Wanda levitate the orange ball up in the air and assault it with her powers, trying to mangle and destroy it as best as she could. The ball, as Natasha had said it would, remained intact, morphing back into a sphere each and every time, forcing Wanda to try something new.

Darcy sat next to Sam and Scott, peering at their letters and demanding to see the photographs of their families. Jane was engrossed in her journal and Natasha was in the kitchen, speaking with Clint in low tones. Steve wondered what they were talking about but when Natasha finally came to sit beside him with a small smile, he decided he couldn’t care less. He was more interested in knowing what she had been up to these past weeks and if everything was all right in her world.

“So where have you been?” he asked her.

“Here and there, mostly with Tony and Vision, making good the Avengers name,” she replied. “I tried to keep an eye on you but following you is difficult with Ross tailing my every step.”

“Ross is having you followed?” Steve asked with a frown.

Natasha shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. T’Challa retracting his statement may have cleared my name but I have a feeling Ross doesn’t trust me. I had to take a dozen detours to throw off any possible tails before I landed in Samui.”

“I see.”

“I probably shouldn’t worry too much. Ross is keeping busy these days what with Tony feeding him fake intel about you guys every now and then. A couple of weeks ago, Captain America and his assassin friend Winter Soldier were seen roaming the streets of Bogota.”

Steve was amused. “Really?”

Natasha nodded. “Apparently, there’s photographic evidence,” she said with a grin. “Tony has Ross wrapped around his little finger. The General was very happy when Tony led him straight to you in Kenya. It’s a different matter entirely that he also helped you escape but he said he needed to build the government’s trust again. Plus, he has the press on his side now, given how much good he is trying to do out there. But God, Steve, I have no idea how he’s doing it. He’s completely submerged in government politics right now, following the law on one hand and helping you guys on the other.”

Steve looked away, a heaviness settling in his chest at Natasha’s words. “How’s he holding up?” he asked softly, his eyes absently following Darcy as she got up to sit beside Jane.

“He’s… well, he’s alone. Pepper hasn’t returned and Rhodey is still not completely well. I suppose he’s happiest when he’s visiting kids in hospitals or giving lectures at universities and I try to take care of him when we’re together but,” Natasha paused and looked at Steve, “he misses you, Steve. He misses everyone.”

“We miss him, too.”

Steve turned to look at Clint, who had spoken, and found that everyone was looking at Natasha now. They must have heard the last part of their conversation. Steve ran a hand through his hair and slumped back into the couch, an inexplicable feeling of tiredness washing over him. The group sat in silence for a while, all of them more or less thinking the same things. Then Jane stood up determinedly.

“Let’s go to the beach,” she announced.

For a second, nobody moved. Then Darcy jumped up and Scott followed suit, and soon, everyone was making their way out of the villa and onto the beach. Steve had begun to think the water there had magical properties. It somehow made them forget their problems and concentrate on just being alive. He saw Sam and Scott try to drag Darcy towards the ocean but she remained stubborn, laughing and snatching her hands out of their grips. She removed her shoes and stepped carefully on the beach mat, settling down beside Natasha, who was apparently content with watching from afar as well.

“Boy, she’s really holding herself back.”

Steve turned to Clint and found the archer observing Darcy talking animatedly to the Widow. He continued at Steve’s questioning gaze, “She’s not aquaphobic. I asked her.”

Steve didn’t know where Clint was going with this but he was curious to find out. “So if she’s not afraid of water, why is she so adamant to stay away from the ocean?”

“From what I can tell, she hasn’t stepped foot on a shore in a very long time. So, she’s not used to it and doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

“That…” he paused and narrowed his eyes at Clint, “can’t be it. Sounds rather silly, to tell you the truth.”

Clint nodded. “Silly but true. When Darcy was five, her parents took her to the beach for the first time. Her aunt Tessa, who was with them at the time, almost drowned trying to catch a beach ball. Darcy doesn’t remember that incident. All she remembers is how uncomfortable she felt walking around with sand stuck to her tiny feet and nobody to clean it up because everyone was focused on Tessa.”

Steve dug his heels in the sand and tried to imagine it from Darcy’s perspective.

He couldn’t. He had always liked walking barefoot on the beach, even when he was a sickly kid prone to pneumonia.

“Isn’t Tessa the one who took Darcy in after her parents died?” he asked, remembering Darcy mention the name once.

“Hmm. She later developed a phobia because of the incident and… looks like she passed it on to Darcy,” guessed Clint. “Not the fear, but the negative feelings. Darcy hasn’t stepped foot on a beach since then. She loves the ocean but prefers watching from a distance because, on a subconscious level, she’s worried the waves will suck her in like they did to her aunt Tessa.”

Steve pursed his lips as he considered Clint’ words. It was maddeningly tragic, wanting to do something but not having the gall to do it because of external influence from someone else who was afraid to do it. He realized he couldn’t blame Tessa, nor was it Darcy’s fault. He felt sorry for her.

“Someone should do something about it,” said Clint. “You know… help her get over whatever issue she has with the ocean.”

Steve snorted. “What can we do? We can’t force her.”

Clint frowned, looking a bit offended. “We should. We’re her friends. If we don’t do it, who will?”

He _did_ have a point and Steve couldn’t help replaying the conversation in his head. “How do you know all this?” he asked suspiciously.

“Nat told me. She and Tony did quite a bit of research on Lewis when she tagged along with Foster. Didn’t want to take a chance with spies, you know?”

Steve nodded, appeased. “So what are you going to do?”

A snort made him tear his wandering eyes away from Darcy and turn back to Clint, who was shaking his head. “Oh, I’m not doing anything. If anybody’s going to solve this mess, it’s you, Cap.”

“Why me?”

“You’ve got a thing going, you and Darcy.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “And that automatically makes me the initiator.”

“Yep. She trusts you. I say go for it.”

Steve huffed and ran a hand down his face. On one hand, Clint was right. Someone needed to show Darcy what she was missing but, on the other hand, he didn’t want to get tased if things went downhill. He was trying to gain her trust, not break it by throwing her into the ocean. He sighed and threw a glare at Clint.

“Fine, but if your information is incorrect, if she’s really just concerned about getting sand in her toenails, I’ll take your cable arrows and shove them up your ass! Got it?”

Clint laughed. “Sir, yes, sir.”

Steve took a deep breath and marched up to where Sam was now trying to bribe Darcy to take a walk with him.

“I’ll let you try out my Falcon gear. Come on, Darcy, the water’s amazing, I promise.”

“Tempting, but no.”

“Move,” Steve said, brushing past Sam and bending down to take Darcy’s arm. Her eyes widened and she immediately went into defense, pulling back her fist to no doubt sock him in the jaw like her instructors had taught her, but Steve wasn’t Captain America for no reason. He caught her hand and she shrieked loudly when he pulled her up and threw her over his shoulder.

Maybe this wasn’t what Clint had in mind when he told Steve to ‘do something about it’ but considering how she didn’t respond to requests and bribes and continued being stubborn, Steve didn’t think she would simply agree if he asked her to go into the water with him. So he applied Clint’s other theory: friends are allowed to be forceful if it’s for a good reason.

“Put me down, put me down, put me down!” Darcy was shouting, thumping her tiny fists on his back. “Widow, help me!”

But Natasha merely looked on with interest, raising her eyebrows at Steve as he turned and made his way towards the water, Darcy still shouting obscenities at him. Sam was laughing in the background and he got a nice string of Sokovian curse words from her as well.

“Steve, put me down right now,” she threatened. “Or I’ll tase you in the balls with my new taser.” When he ignored her completely, she wailed, “Steeeeeeve!” By the time he was standing in the water, her babblings had gotten more nervous… something about being fine with watching the ocean and not wanting to get her feet dirty and wanting to be safe…

She shrieked comically when Steve swung her until he was holding her bridal style. “Okay, okay, listen,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and clinging to him. “I promise not to call you asshole or Captain Jerkwad or…” He lowered her slowly and she clung to him more, her entire body stiff with tension.

“Darcy,” Steve said, because he couldn’t help making sure for himself. “Are you afraid of the water?”

She paused in her rant and blinked at him. “No, I… I don’t know… I _like_ the water.”

Biting back a sigh of relief, he said softly, “Then, you need to experience this once. You can tase me if you don’t enjoy it.”

“Wait, wait,” Darcy protested. “I admit to kissing you in Singapore. I don’t know what came over me and I won’t do it again.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Not enough incentive there, Darce. I’m afraid you don’t know how to negotiate.”

Darcy gaped at him. When he lowered her a bit more, she exclaimed, “Okay, okay, I will do it again. Now take me back.”

He was sorely tempted to do as she asked, considering what she had just agreed to. But he had brought her this far, he wasn’t going to back out at the last moment just because she said she would kiss him.

“Darcy,” he said gently. “Trust me on this.”

Her wide eyes stared at him and he gave her a few seconds to prepare before he bent down and slowly lowered her feet into the ankle-high water, removing his arm from under her knees but keeping the other secure around her waist. She squealed and maintained her death grip around his neck, making for a very awkward position where he was bent to her level with one hand hanging limply at his side.

“Darcy, let go of me,” he ordered. “And open your eyes.”

After a few seconds of rebellion, she obediently disentangled herself from him and looked down at her feet. A soft “Oh” escaped her lips following which she was silent for a long time. Steve initially maintained his careful gaze on her but after some time, when she merely alternated between looking at her feet and the horizon, he let himself look away, his arm still wrapped around her waist and his body slightly turned towards her.

The sun was a little over the horizon, casting waning orange rays on the island and the water sparkled like it always did. A pink seashell caught Steve’s eye and he made a mental note to swipe it for Darcy before they went inside. She had taken to weaving bracelets and necklaces with the seashells that Scott left for her all over the villa, and made Jane and Wanda wear the jewelry she fashioned out of those shells. Scott had the best time teasing Wanda about it.

Steve was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a strange sound erupt from Darcy. He looked down just in time to see a tear slide down her cheek. Her bottom lip was trembling and, for one horrible second, Steve panicked, thinking that maybe he had grossly misjudged the situation and made a mistake in bringing her in. But then he registered the awe on her face and the slight parting of her lips as she wiggled her toes in the sand, taking in a shaky breath that caused a few more tears to make their way down her face. His fingers flexed on her waist and she looked up at him.

“Steve,” she breathed.

She couldn’t say any more, couldn’t translate her feelings into words, but Steve understood. He let himself drink her in, staring unabashedly despite recognizing that this was a private moment for her, for she was so completely mesmerizing in that instant, with her hair blowing in the wind and her big blue eyes wet with wonder and her red lips opening and closing as if she was so happy that she could barely breathe right.

“This is amazing,” she whispered, her eyes sweeping over the horizon at the approaching sunset and then, because she couldn’t help it, coming back to land on the waves lapping at her feet.

“Darcy!” Jane called from the distance, the scientist’s face stretched into a wide, happy smile. Scott was beside her, his expression mirroring Jane’s. “Way to go, Darce,” he shouted, bouncing a little in the water.

Sam was but a few feet away, lying flat on the sand. “Can’t say I told you so,” he said with a grin, his eyes twinkling.

Wanda and Clint were farther into the water. “You did it,” Wanda shouted before Clint dunked her head into the water and smiled broadly, giving them a thumbs-up.

Steve turned back to look at Darcy and saw her laughing through her tears. She slapped a hand to her eyes, partly to hide her face from him and partly to swipe at her tears. “I’m such an idiot,” she said.

“Not anymore,” teased Steve.

A giggle escaped her lips before she abruptly stiffened and blinked rapidly. “You’re touching me,” she murmured, as if she had just realized his hand was resting on her waist, that he had all but carried her into the water.

Steve didn’t budge from his position. He cocked his head and surveyed her silently. She looked neither scared nor angry. He got the impression that she was surprised at herself for not noticing something that she routinely tried to avoid, that she had finally let someone new in without freaking out completely.

“Yes,” Steve said confidently. “I am.”

Much later, after everyone had gone back to the villa, tired but happy, Steve and Darcy were still on the beach, letting their feet guide them as they took a leisurely walk on the shore. Darcy’s hand was clasped in Steve’s, their fingers loosely laced together. They ventured into occasional bouts of conversation but mostly preferred silence over words. At one point, Steve tugged on Darcy’s hand and was thrilled when she willingly stepped into his arms, letting her hands go around his waist and placing her head on his chest.

Jane was right. Darcy gave amazing hugs.


	13. Bringing down Captain America

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my beta reader, pianobookworm, for helping me with this chapter.

Natasha left the next morning with the promise that she would try to return soon. She was flying to South Africa with Tony in a few days and their work there would keep them busy for around two weeks, making it difficult for her to sneak away.

“Tony is planning to visit T’Challa after that. He’s looking forward to playing with some new toys,” Natasha informed them, referring to the advanced Wakandan tech. “So maybe he’ll let me come to Samui because I’m not really interested in going to Wakanda.”

She passed quick hugs to Clint and Steve and then disappeared. Steve moped around for two days after she left. Darcy was tired of it and she would have teased him about staring at his shield and constantly holding his phone to his chest but she knew how touchy he got when it came to Tony Stark. So on the third day, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Clutching a jar of honey and a bottle of her clear nail varnish in hand, she snuck into Steve’s room in the early hours of the morning to set up her genius prank. She tiptoed into the bathroom, took Steve’s soap and painted the whole bar with her nail polish. Then, she pulled out the gum she was chewing and stuck it to the mouth of the water faucet. Her next order of business was to pour a jarful of honey below Steve’s side of the bed, so that when he woke up, the first thing he’d do was step on the sticky liquid on the floor. He’d then run to the bathroom to find the faucet wouldn’t work and his soap wouldn’t lather.

But when she stepped out of the bathroom, Steve wasn’t in his bed. With her heart pretty much in her throat, Darcy looked around the room, wondering if had found out that she was in his territory. She slowly walked to the bedside table, placed the honey jar on it and checked under the bed. He wasn’t hiding under it either.

“What are you up to?”

His voice caused a stunted shriek to escape her lips and she spun around, her fist acting on its own accord and flying toward his face. Steve, as usual, caught her hand, spun her back around and pulled her to his chest in less than a second. He opened his mouth to taunt her, but Darcy was ready for him this time. She stepped on his foot, punched him in the nose with the back of her free hand, then turned and slid her foot behind his, making him fall on his back with one swift motion.

Steve ogled her from his position on the floor, his lips parted in surprise. Darcy smirked at him. “I win.”

He stared at her for a few more seconds before his face scrunched up in pain. He tried to sit up but it seemed like he couldn’t move. Darcy’s smug smile faltered and she knelt at his side. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I broke something,” he grunted.

She gaped at him. “I couldn’t have punched you that hard.”

“It was the fall.”

“Oh no,” she said, her face falling. She had gone there to prank him, to lighten his mood, but instead she had managed to injure him. _Great plan_ , she told herself gloomily. It didn’t even make sense, how had she managed to bring down Captain America?

A groan from him spurred her into action and she grabbed his hand. “Where does it hurt? What do I do? Should I call Sam?”

“No, just go,” mumbled Steve. “Leave me here to die.”

Darcy frowned. “Why would I—oh my God, you bastard!”

It was Steve’s turn to smirk. “I win.”

“You cheated!”

“Hey, there are no rules here. Everything’s fair in war.”

Darcy snatched a pillow from the bed and smashed it in his laughing face. “Die, you cheating idiot!”

His laughter followed her as she kicked his leg and stomped out of the room, leaving the jar of honey behind in her haste. After about ten minutes of pacing grumpily outside his room and planning evil plots against him, Darcy calmed down, realizing that she had at least succeeded in lifting his mood. When she peeked into his room again, he was shirtless and going into the bathroom. She counted ten in her head before Steve’s angry yell filled the room and, snickering to herself, she scurried away to hide in the shadows when he strode out with an adorable scowl on his face. She heard the words ‘sneaky’ and ‘sidekick’ and ‘not over yet’ as he marched into Sam and Scott’s room to use their facilities.

 _Guess I win after all_ , Darcy thought to herself happily.

The house was still dark as she made her way to the kitchen, knowing that Steve would do the same now that he was up. Deciding to make breakfast for the both of them, she puttered around, opening cupboards and staring at various breakfast items before deciding on an omelet. However, her plan to make something nice and edible was foiled when Steve came down and found her crying over an onion.

He laughed when he saw her. “Serves you right for sticking gum in my faucet.”

“Don’t come any closer,” she warned him, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “This onion is a spawn of the devil. It will make you think of sad things and indefinitely blur your vision.”

Despite her gracious warning, she felt Steve’s arms close around her from behind. “Please don’t tell me you’re making a trifle again,” he teased.

“I’m chopping an onion. So that obviously means I’m making a trifle dessert,” she sassed.

“Well, one can never tell with you, Darcy,” chuckled Steve. “Didn’t you put beef in it last time?”

She elbowed him. “At least I’m not a cheating cheater who cheats.”

“I’m sorry,” he said with a grin. “What you did back there was pretty impressive.”

Darcy snorted. “You always go easy on me. I just caught you by surprise, that’s all.”

“That’s how it’s done, Darce.” He brushed away her hair from one shoulder to rest his chin on it. “The element of surprise always lends you a higher chance to neutralize your attacker.”

“Okay, but,” Darcy bit her lip, the knife in her hand shaking slightly. “You’re not supposed to hold me like this when we haven’t even kissed yet.”

“Of course we have! Remember that time when I pretended to kiss you because we were in danger and I was trying to save our lives, and in spite of that, you went ahead and groped me in public—?”

“I did not grope you!”

“Oh, really? What did you do, then?”

“I just kis—,” Sensing his trap, she clamped her mouth shut and elbowed him for constantly picking on her about it. “You’re a little shit, Rogers,” she stated, tossing the onion aside and instead concentrating on grating cheese in a bowl.

“Say what you want, Darce, but I count it as a kiss,” Steve said.

Darcy sniffed stubbornly. “Well, I don’t. So technically, you’re not my boyfriend.”

“I can easily rectify that issue.” His arms around her waist tightened and he turned his head to press a kiss on the sensitive skin below her ear.

Darcy gasped and the chunk of cheese fell from her fingers. It took a right effort to tilt her head away from his lips. “No,” she said, shaking her head so that her hair fell over her shoulder again.

“Why not?” he asked curiously.

“I make the first move,” she declared, surprising him so much that he stepped away from their embrace to stand beside her so that he could look at her face properly. “I always make the first move,” she repeated insistently and he realized she wasn’t joking.

He regarded her silently for a while as she looked up at him defiantly and, for the moment, his amusement won over his desire to kiss her. “Is that so?” he murmured and she nodded proudly in response. He supposed he shouldn’t be so surprised considering what Jane had said about Darcy having to constantly rebuff people’s untoward advances. Perhaps this was her way of telling herself that she was in charge and that she decided if and when her relationship with someone progressed.

Steve reckoned he could agree to that. “Okay. But how long does it normally take you to make a move?” he asked, trying not to show that he was fighting a smile.

Darcy huffed irritably as if his question offended her. She did not seem inclined to answer, so Steve changed tack. “Am I allowed to hug you?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you mocking me?”

“I wouldn’t dare. I’m a perfect gentleman, ask anyone.” Darcy snorted and Steve was pretty sure she muttered ‘ass’ under her breath. She was just so funny sometimes; she had no idea how appealing she was. “Come here,” he said, pulling her into a hug. She didn’t resist.

He held on to her for a while, relishing in the feel of her, until a low ding made him go stiff. His hand slid down her back to the pocket of his pants and he pulled out his phone, eagerly flipping it open.

Darcy’s muffled voice floated up to him. “It’s the oven. I heated up last night’s pasta in case the omelet was a bust.” Good thing, too, because there was no way she would be able to make anything with Steve distracting her. She pulled back a little to look at his disappointed face. “You’re such a puppy, Steve. Just call him, will you? Your moping around is irritating everyone.”

“I don’t mope.”

“Yes, you do. Look, he messages you, right? He told you about the villa and everything.”

“His messages are short and professional. In Kenya, he sent ‘The jet’s yours. Happy escaping’, at the conference, he messaged ‘get out NOW’ and later he sent me the coordinates of this villa explaining in barely any words that this was his unregistered vacation home and we would be safe here for a while,” said Steve wryly. “Hardly what I call friendly messages.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “So what, you want him to send you messages full of cheesy emotional content?” she asked sarcastically. “Tell you about his day and stuff? Because you know he’s not going to do that. Just please call him and do yourself and us all a favor.”

He frowned at her choice of words and at what she was implying, but before he could reply, they heard a low whimper and Darcy’s name being called. Jane came down the sloping walkway, looking as if she had another nightmare about Thor’s death and needing a hug to feel better about it. She took one look at the couple in the kitchen, their arms locked around each other, and she came rushing forward, pulling Darcy from Steve’s embrace and glaring at him.

“Hey!” she cried, her voice thick and raspy with sleep. “That’s _my_ sidekick. Go find your own!”

Later when they looked back on this moment, they found it incredibly funny because a person such as Dr. Jane Foster saying something like that was nothing short of hilarious. But the moment she unthinkingly called Darcy her sidekick, her nightmare-induced possessive self was treated to such an earful of reprimands and choice curse words that all sleep left her system and her eyes widened till they were the size of saucers. Needless to say, she didn’t get the hug she wanted.

Steve, who was quietly entertaining himself with the show, was punished as well.

“And you,” Darcy said, focusing her wrath on him. “You think this is funny?” She thrust her hand in the pocket of her pajama shorts and pulled out her Stark taser.

Steve stepped back. “Hey, what did I do?”

“You’re the one who started this stupid and utterly mean sidekick-Darcy trend!”

“Why are you carrying your taser around so early in the morning?” Jane asked in a small voice.

“So that I can avenge myself anytime and anywhere I want,” Darcy declared, pulling the trigger on him before he even had a chance to defend himself. He stumbled and fell back on the floor with a dull thump.

Jane ran up to kneel beside him while a satisfied Darcy admired her taser. “Are you okay?” Jane asked.

Steve made no move to get up. “Yep. It barely tickled,” he muttered. Truth be told, it _had_ jolted him a little, but Jane didn’t need to know that.

“Then why did you fall?”

“I didn’t want her to think her new avenging weapon didn’t work on me.” He sat up slowly and they both looked at Darcy, who had placed her precious taser back in her pocket and was now scowling at them.

“I’m never talking to you again,” she told them, going to the couch in the living room and sitting down pointedly.

Jane helped Steve up. “That means she wants us to apologize.”

“Does she?” Steve whispered. “How could you tell?”

Jane pretended to ignore his sarcasm. “Because she’s waiting on the couch.”

Steve and Jane spent the next two hours apologizing to Darcy for all the sins they had committed in their life since the day they were born. By the end of the third hour, Darcy seemed slightly placated but Steve was pretty sure that her chances of making a move on him any time soon had lessened considerably.

 

Clint’s birthday came with a movie night that no one wanted to participate in because Scott insisted they watch Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and Brave in a full day movie marathon.

“If you’re mocking my craft,” Clint began ominously.

“No, no, no, my dear Clinton,” Scott exclaimed, cutting Clint off. “It’s your birthday! Let today be archery appreciation day. Let’s watch Legolas, Katniss and Merida battle it out on the screen, knowing that they will never be as good as Clinton Hawkeye Barton and that they’ve never fought aliens like Clinton Hawkeye Barton and that—”

“Call me Clinton one more time.”

“I mean Clint Hawkeye Barton.”

“God,” muttered Jane. “Stop saying his full name already!”

“That’s not my full name!”

“Your middle name is not Hawkeye?” ribbed Sam.

“Jesus, guys.”

“All right,” Steve spoke up, having had enough. “No movie marathons if Clinton, I mean Clint—dammit Scott!—if Clint doesn’t want them. It’s his birthday, so let him decide.”

Everyone looked at Clint expectantly and the poor man looked cornered. Then, Darcy crawled up to him and asked glumly, “You don’t like Brave?”

Clint looked at her big innocent eyes and sighed resignedly. “I guess we can make an exception for Brave, Cap.” Darcy squealed and slapped her palm with Scott’s in a loud high-five. Clint rolled his eyes and continued shrewdly, “If the shortest person in the room gives me a hug.”

Jane looked at Darcy and Darcy looked at Jane. Everyone looked at Darcy and then glared at Clint, who merely smirked until Jane walked up to hug him and his face fell.

“What? But I thought Darcy was the runt here,” sputtered Clint, ignoring the silent laughter and ‘boo’ signals from Sam, Scott and Wanda behind Jane’s shoulder.

“Well, Darcy grew two inches last week,” Jane informed him with a twinkle in her eye. “So now I’m the shortest.”

Steve stared at Darcy. “Is that true?” he asked, disbelief coloring his tone. How was that even possible?

Scott answered his silent question. “I’d shoot up, too, if I was exchanging saliva with Captain America.”

“Eww, Scott,” said Darcy, making a face. “Don’t be crass. I’m not exchanging saliva with Captain America.”

“You will soon if Steve has any say in the matter,” smirked Scott, waggling his eyebrows at Steve, who growled lowly.

“Wanda,” he said. “Have at him.”

Scott squawked and looked at Wanda, ready to bolt if she tried anything. Clint was still looking a bit disappointed, so Darcy smacked his arm. “We’re just messing with you, you idiot. I’m still the shortest and I know about the stupid betting pool.”

She looked around at each of the shocked faces in turn. Sam and Wanda looked guilty, Scott looked unrepentant, Steve and Jane were smug and Clint… Clint looked at her hopefully as if he hadn’t heard the announcement at all. Darcy rolled her eyes at him. “No more bets,” she ordered. “Otherwise I’ll put my taser to good use. Get it?”

Clint nodded earnestly and then, to everyone’s surprise and disbelief, Darcy leaned forward to wrap her arms around him in a warm hug. Clint grinned at Sam over Darcy’s shoulder. Sam scowled and flipped him off. Darcy pulled away and placed a light kiss on Clint’s cheek. “Happy birthday,” she said, smiling at the delight on his face.

“I’ll make the birthday cake,” she offered generously.

The reaction around the room was immediate as there was a loud chorus of “No!”


	14. This thing between us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by pianobookworm.
> 
> Hank Pym: Scott?  
> Scott Lang: Yeah?  
> Hank Pym: You're full of shit.  
> Scott Lang: Oh, yeah.  
>  _~ Ant-Man_

Darcy and Jane were making their way down from the terrace, having spent the afternoon up there sunbathing by the pool, when they noticed a crowd gathered outside Steve’s door and stopped to find out what was going on.

“Shh,” Clint mouthed the moment he saw them. “He’s going to call Tony.”

“Finally!” muttered Jane, pushing her way to where Scott was standing with his ear to the door.

Sam, it seemed, had a bit of decency left in him because he asked uncertainly, “Shouldn’t we give him some privacy?” When everyone ignored him in favor of Steve saying Tony’s name, Sam went quiet and began to listen intently as well.

Darcy made her way to the tiny open crack in the door and peeked in at Steve sitting on his bed, his face eager as he spoke on the phone.

“Is this a bad time?” He was quiet for a second before he hastened to say, “Oh, okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” It seemed Tony had cut him off because he trailed away uncertainly.

“What a girl,” Scott mumbled and Darcy threw him a dirty look.

Steve was speaking again. “… been fine. The villa is very nice, thank you… yes, yes, I know but we mostly spend our time indoors or on the beach. How’s the weather in South Africa?”

Wanda glanced at Darcy, her left eye twitching. “Did he seriously ask about the weather?”

Darcy fought back a giggle and nodded, turning back to pay attention to what Steve was saying. He honestly sounded so eager and so relieved that Tony had actually picked up his call that Darcy wanted to go inside and give him a big hug.

“That’s good, that’s… uh… good.” Steve took a deep breath and finally gathered the courage to say what he really wanted to say to his friend. “So…um… listen Tony, I—what? Oh, okay then. Talk later.” He held the phone before his eyes and stared at it for a while, then sighed resignedly.

“They’re both such big idiots,” whispered Clint, pinching the bridge of his nose as if the phone conversation had given him a headache.

“Their bromance is killing me,” said Scott.

“I think they should—,” Wanda stopped abruptly with a gasp as the door suddenly opened and Steve stood there glaring at the lot of them. Everyone almost ran over each other in their haste to get away from Steve’s doorway. Within moments, Darcy was the only one standing there with her wrist locked in Steve’s grip.

He pulled her in and closed the door behind her, pushing her against it. “What were you doing?”

“Eavesdropping,” admitted Darcy, only slightly guilty.

“I see.” He paused and leaned closer. “And was it worth your while?”

She could see he was playing with her, so she smirked and replied, “About fifty percent.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Liar.”

“No, really. The conversation itself was pathetic but I’m glad you called him.”

The mock serious expression on Steve’s face faltered and he dropped his head on her shoulder with a sigh. “Pathetic, right? He wouldn’t let me speak. Pretended he had to go do important stuff.”

Darcy ran a hand down his arm and squeezed his fingers. “There’s always a second time,” she soothed.

“He won’t let me apologize.” Steve paused and a low chuckle escaped him. “He probably won’t apologize either.”

Darcy thought about that. “It’s okay, I guess. Sometimes, there are no apologies in friendship. There’s only the understanding that everything henceforth will be okay.”

Steve raised his head to stare at her. “You know, you sound rather wise right now.”

“I _am_ wise,” said Darcy. Seeing the amused look in his eyes, she scowled. “What? I _am_. More than you on a good day.”

“Says the person who tased me because someone _else_ said something she didn’t like.”

“You had it coming!” Darcy glared at him, then sighed and mumbled, “I already said I’m sorry. I was angry. How would you feel if people called you Tony Stark’s sidekick?”

“I’d be honored.”

“Thor’s sidekick?”

“All right, now you’ve crossed a line,” said Steve, looking offended.

Darcy rolled her eyes and fought an amused smile. Thor gave everyone an inferiority complex, the big lug. She wanted to snark back at Steve but wisely kept her mouth shut, especially since he had gotten distracted again. He absently played with her hair, letting the smooth strands pass between his fingers as he slowly combed through it. She liked it, the feel of his fingers in her hair. She wanted to close her eyes and press up against him but she had to let him talk first.

“What’s wrong, Steve?” she asked softly.

He did not reply immediately. His gaze remained fixed on his hand as it occasionally disappeared in her hair, then appeared only to plunge back in her soft waves with calming consistency.

“I wish Bucky were here,” he finally murmured. “Under different circumstances, I think he and Tony would have gotten along… ganged up on me, called me names, fought to be the best man at my wedding…”

“Don’t give up hope. It could happen.”

He raised an eyebrow. “The wedding?”

Darcy smacked his arm. “Bucky and Tony. It could happen.”

“You sound confident.”

Darcy shrugged. “I’m a hopeful person.”

“Is that so?”

“Are you always going to keep mocking me?” she huffed. “Because if you are, I don’t think this is going to work.”

“What’s not going to work?”

“Whatever this is between us.”

“What’s between us?” he inquired innocently.

Darcy glared at him and waved her arms between their bodies. “This… this _thing_!”

“What thing?” prodded Steve. “Because I’m not your boyfriend and we haven’t kissed yet. Your words, not mine. I personally believe what happened in Singapore was definitely…”

Darcy kissed him.

It was abrupt and all too brief for Steve’s liking, and he stared at her in surprise when she pulled back, looking uncharacteristically shy for someone who claimed to always make the first move. Steve decided it could only be a good sign. He watched her fidget nervously for a while before she seemed to make up her mind about something and met his gaze again. Her face lifted and her eyes closed in a blatant invitation for him to kiss her.

There was something in the way that she did it, perhaps the show of trust towards him or maybe the unintentional sensuality that she exuded as she stood there patiently waiting for him to make his move, but there was something about it that touched him a little and made his heart skip several beats. All it took was for Steve to close the gap between their bodies and claim her mouth with his. Winding one arm around her neck and the other around her waist, he all but wrapped himself around her tiny figure as he explored her skin with his lips. He had always imagined Darcy to be a very vocal participant and he was pleased to find that he was right. The small breathy moans that escaped her at his ministrations were extremely arousing and the more he kissed her, the more difficult it became to remember why he couldn’t do more than that.

Darcy stumbled forward when he abruptly pulled back, her lips following his for a moment before her eyes fluttered open and she blinked at him, looking utterly disoriented and totally adorable. Steve squinted at the door, straining his ears for the sound he had heard just moments earlier. His ears perked up when he heard it again and a growl escaped his lips.

“I can hear you outside, Scott!” he bellowed, making Darcy jump. “If you’re not gone in three seconds, I’ll strangle you with your own stupid ant suit!”

There was silence, then Scott’s muffled voice floated through the door. “Just looking for my quarter, Cap. I dropped it earlier and—ooh, I found it! Bye now.”

Right at that moment, Steve hated Scott. He wanted to open the door and pound some sense and decency into him. But he contented himself with shouting, “You’re full of shit, you know that?”

“Oh, yeah,” came Scott’s voice and there was silence again.

Steve closed his eyes and prayed for patience. He opened them when he heard a giggle and let his gaze fall on Darcy. She was, for lack of a better word, a total mess. Her hair was tangled and standing on end; her lips were swollen and blurry around the edges; her blouse was terribly askew and the hem had risen up to reveal the tiniest sliver of creamy skin underneath. He let out a shaky breath at the sight of her thoroughly ravaged appearance and was torn between feeling guilty and feeling proud of himself.

Darcy coughed pointedly and his eyes snapped back to hers. She was smiling impishly at him, her gaze alternating between his face and somewhere down below and, with a jolt, he realized that his shirt was hanging open down his front and was slightly pushed back over his shoulders. When on earth had she done that?

“Shit, Darcy!”

She stood up on her tiptoes to give him a lingering kiss on the cheek, pulling his collar back into place as she did so. His heart fluttered in his chest.

“ _This_ thing between us,” she said smugly. “That’s what I was trying to tell you.”

Steve stared at her blankly, his mind still stuck somewhere in their crazy intense make out session. It took some time for him to remember their earlier conversation and when he did, he blinked in comprehension.

Darcy giggled and asked innocently, “Do you get it now or would you like another demonstration?”

She spent the next few minutes being tickled mercilessly as punishment, her shrieks of laughter echoing throughout the villa.

 

Jane walked out of the bathroom one day to find the entire group lounging in her and Darcy’s bed looking like it was something they did every day. Steve was sketching. Darcy was snuggled into his side, playing truth or dare with Sam, Scott and Wanda. Clint sat at the edge of the bed, flipping through Tony’s journal. Jane went to sit beside him.

“What’s going on?”

“They’re at it again,” replied Clint, shaking his head.

Jane glanced behind him to see Sam ask Darcy, “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you to hug me.”

Wanda rolled her eyes. “You can’t dare people to hug you.”

“Why? It’s a valid dare.”

“Not when it comes to… certain people,” argued Scott, wisely not uttering Darcy’s name even though they all knew whom he was referring to.

Jane chuckled and turned back to find Clint frowning at the journal. “Something wrong?” she asked him quietly.

He didn’t reply immediately. “Did you talk to Tony?” he asked after a beat.

Jane nodded. “He’s worked really hard on collecting and linking this information.”

“I can see.” He looked a bit disturbed.

Jane shot him a knowing look. “You see what I see?”

Clint snorted. “Hard to miss. You know,” he said slowly. “This can’t be a coincidence. I think Steve is right when he says something is going to go down and soon.”

Jane felt eyes on her and looked up to see Steve looking at them. He didn’t say anything but Jane knew he had heard them. She turned back to Clint.

“Yeah, I think so, too.”


	15. All this talk about Infinity Stones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter proofread by pianobookroom. She's amazing. You should go read her stories. She's got a great Darcy/Steve series.

They were all sitting in the living area, talking over each other as was usual for them these days. This time, their topic was books vs. graphic novels. Steve wasn’t participating but from what he could tell, it was going on to be a very heated debate. He sat on the couch with his head and arms thrown back in a relaxed manner. Darcy sat in his lap, her back to him and her legs crossed Indian style over his thighs. Once in a while, she would turn to press a kiss to his chin which was the only part of his face her lips could reach given their position.

“I already know Clint prefers books,” Wanda was saying. “Right, Clint?”

“God, you’re such a witch,” said Scott. “Stop reading people’s minds and let them speak!”

“Well, I’m sorry but what’s the use of…”

Steve tuned them out. He raised his head and glanced sideways at Jane. She was the only other person aside from him who was silent. She would occasionally raise a good point in favor of books, smirk when Sam and Scott would explode with indignation, and then go back to reading the journal Tony had sent her. There was a tiny frown on her face that bothered Steve, especially since he wasn’t feeling well that day. He wasn’t sick, no, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of his mind, a sense of foreboding that kept whispering that something bad was going to happen, a sort of premonition that this was the day their lives changed forever, for better or worse.

Steve dropped his arm from the couch onto Jane’s shoulder. “What’s wrong, Jane?” he asked quietly. He felt Darcy stiffen in his lap but she didn’t turn around and wisely kept everyone’s attention away from them by speaking loudly about something called Manga.

Jane did not look up from the journal but he knew she heard him when she leaned a bit into his touch. “I don’t know, Steve,” she said. “I have gone over this a dozen times but… but something doesn’t add up.”

“What doesn’t add up?”

“Tony says we’ve come in contact with three stones so far. Before Thor left, he mentioned _four_ stones,” divulged Jane. “That’s not even the issue. The issue is that… no wait.”

“What?”

“Let me start at the beginning. The Mind Stone is in our possession. Vision wears it. The Aether—I don’t know if Thor told you but I was possessed by the Aether once—that’s another stone. It’s actually in liquid form, so I don’t know how…” Jane trailed away uncertainly, then shook her head and continued, “Third is the Tesseract.”

“Wait what?” interrupted Steve. “The Tesseract? But it’s a cube.”

“It’s a powerful form of energy, Steve. It opened a wormhole through which aliens came to Earth.”

“I know but…”

“I don’t know how else it could have helped harness so much power. It makes sense. Tony calls it the Space Stone because it opened a way through space or whatever, I don’t care what it’s called. The fact remains that all three are extremely powerful stones that were disastrous in the hands of the wrong people. Thor is sure there’s a fourth stone, although we don’t know where that is. What I don’t get is where did all these stones come from? Who made them and why?”

“Jane,” said Steve gently. “That’s not our main concern, is it? I’m more worried about the power a single person could wield if that person was in possession of all four stones.”

“Yes, but how would he harness the power of the stones? As far as I can tell, all stones require a host—Aether possessed me, the Space Stone is in the Tesseract, the Mind Stone was powered by Loki’s scepter. You cannot just touch or imbibe these stones and live to tell the tale, right? You need a tool to harness the power of all four stones at once. And once you do that…”

“You would be the most powerful being in the universe,” finished Steve, realization dawning.

“Exactly!”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying the occurrence of these stones in the recent years is not a coincidence.”

Clint’s words from a few days ago echoed in his mind and he remembered Thor saying the same thing before he left. It sounded more ominous now.

“And that someone or something is hell bent on acquiring these stones at all possible costs. It’s the _why_ that scares me.”

Steve felt a chill go down his spine at Jane’s words. His eyes swept distractedly around the room as he thought about what she meant. The others had moved on to less passionate topics.

“Oh, yes, I’m all about hugs and free love.”

“Well, that’s too bad. Everyone knows ants are meant to squashed, not hugged.”

“Why, you little witch…”

“Scott. Touch one hair on Wanda’s head and I’ll break your fingers.”

“Great. The Hawk in big brother mode. You know, Sam and I could take you on a good day.”

“I’m not fighting Clint. He’s a marksman and an assassin.”

“You’re no fun, Sam.”

Steve slipped an arm around Darcy’s waist and took a deep grounding breath before turning to Jane again. “What do we know about these stones?” he asked, trying to keep his mind occupied with technical details.

“Well, you said the Mind Stone gives Vision the power of telepathy and telekinesis, right?” Steve nodded. “The Space Stone can tear a hole through the universe… open portals to other realms. The Aether…”

Jane paused and sat up straight, eyes wide. Steve heard it, too. In fact, everyone heard it, the whooshing sound, as if all air was being sucked right out of the atmosphere. Clint stood up, swiping his bow from under the couch, arrow at the ready.

“No,” Jane cried, holding up a hand at Clint. “I know that sound.”

There was a thunderous thump outside followed by a loud roar. Steve exchanged a glance with Clint, and then everyone was running towards the door, throwing it open and sprinting outside to check out the commotion. They were met with an unexpected and rather strange sight.

Thor stood there, looking around at the cluster of trees around the villa with distrustful eyes, his hammer clutched tightly in his hand. He turned when the Avengers, Darcy and Jane rushed out, his face breaking into a smile at the sight of his friends. However, it was the large shape behind him that drew everyone’s attention.

Hulk glared at them all, his teeth bared and eyes narrowed as he sized them all up, assessing whether they were a threat to him or not. He was holding a person in his hands, a person who was struggling and demanding to be put down. But the Hulk merely crushed the body to his chest and grunted, “Hulk protect Tony.”

“Yes, yes, protect Tony. That’s nice. But no one is attacking me here,” grumbled Tony. “So put me down, will you?”

He sounded exasperated and Steve and the others would have done something had they not been so utterly surprised to see Thor, Hulk and Tony there. A feeling of warmth settled in Steve’s chest as he stared slack jawed at Tony placing his palms on Hulk’s chest and attempting to push away from him. Hulk growled, “Hulk love Tony.”

“All right, Bruce,” said Tony, rolling his eyes. “Now you’re creeping me out. Put me down or I’ll never talk to you again.”

He was immediately dropped to the ground with a dull thump. “Ow! Damn it, Bruce!” Tony pushed himself off the ground and turned as if in slow motion to face them all, his eyes taking in the varying degrees of shock on everyone’s faces. He hesitated, then spoke.

“Uh… hi, guys.”


	16. The Mad Titan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter proofread by pianobookworm. No matter how many adjectives such as _amazing_ and _wonderful_ I use for her, it won't be enough.

Darcy sat silently in the jet with her worried eyes repeatedly sweeping over her flight companions. Jane’s head was on her shoulder; Steve, Clint and Bruce were speaking in the corner near the cockpit and Wanda sat in the co-pilot’s seat, listening to their conversation. Scott and Sam had left earlier with Tony Stark and Thor. They couldn’t take more people by Thor’s method of travel (which was to fly faster than the speed of light) because, according to Thor, if one of them accidentally lost contact with the group, even if that person survived the fall, he or she could end up anywhere in the world between Samui and Upstate New York, and no one was ready to take that kind of risk.

Meeting Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had been both scary and exciting at once. Their dynamics were amazing despite both of them being the complete opposite of each other. Bruce was observant and polite to Tony’s sarcastic genius. Bruce was laidback and more in control while Tony was impatient and larger than life. Under different circumstances, Darcy was sure that seeing them interact would be a treat for the senses. But that day, everyone was serious and there had been no time for fun and jokes, except once or twice in the beginning after the Hulk had dropped Tony and he had turned around with a cautious “Hi guys.”

Steve had made a beeline for Tony while Jane ran to wrap Thor in a tight hug. Clint sidled up to Darcy and whispered, “Watch.” And Darcy did. She watched Steve and Tony Stark eye each other silently, each at a loss for what to say and where to begin. Then Tony lowered his eyes ashamedly and tried to form an apology.

“I… I am… what I want to say is that…”

Steve waved his hand and cut him off, suddenly not interested in an apology at all. Tony was there and he was trying and that was all that mattered. “I know,” said Steve before adding meaningfully, “Me, too.”

Just like that, the spell was broken and the tension evaporated. Steve extended a hand and Tony stared at it, a soft breath escaping him and his shoulders relaxing considerably. He took Steve’s hand and shook it, his lips twitching up into a small smile. Unable to hide his own pleased smile, Steve raised a hand to grip Tony’s shoulder tightly, as if he couldn’t quite content himself with a simple handshake, as if he thought something more was needed to let Tony know that they were all right, that they were friends.

“Good to see you again, Tony.”

“Can’t say the feeling’s mutual, Rogers,” snarked Tony, his tone slightly cautious, as if he was not sure whether he was allowed to sass with Steve yet.

The chemistry between them was truly remarkable and Darcy found herself staring at both men in awe. The remaining Avengers soon had enough of their drama. Clint pushed past Steve, teasing, “Are you both done staring romantically into each other’s eyes?” and Steve rolled his eyes, letting the others greet Thor and Tony in their own way. Clint, in a bold and rather unexpected move, hugged Tony, who looked shocked and promptly tried to push the archer away.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Clint explained with a mischievous laugh.

Sam shook Tony’s hand with a small smile and a nod that spoke volumes, but Darcy wasn’t paying enough attention to decipher the meaning behind Sam’s eyes. Scott mumbled something about Hank Pym being wrong before moving on to Thor to introduce himself and gawk at his biceps. Wanda apologized for doubting Tony and awkwardly kissed his cheek.

Tony Stark seemed overwhelmed by all the feelings and tension in the air, rarely having received such a welcome from people he considered his friends. Later, Steve would admit to Darcy that he thought they had gone wrong with Stark somewhere if a simple sorry or a thank you could surprise him so much and make him uncomfortable. Steve felt guilty for not properly expressing his concerns over Tony’s safety and his gratitude over Iron Man’s existence and for the things he had done for them all. The man deserved to know and understand friendship like Steve did.

But they didn’t have time for small talk or for any more pleasantries. Once the Hulk had shrunk back to his normal half-naked and less-growly self, Thor had announced that they had matters of utmost import to discuss and the group trooped back inside to listen to what the demigod had to say.

It had been the scariest conversation of Darcy’s life, and looking at the others seated around her, it was for them as well. Because what Thor said was coming wasn’t just a fire-breathing decepticon from hell or a ship of Dark Elves or a bunch of Chitauri alien-scum pouring through a portal to claim dominance over the world. No, it was something—or rather someone—worse, and if _he_ wasn’t stopped, the universe would stop existing as it existed right then, which, while made no sense to Darcy at all, was enough to shoot a chill down her spine, especially considering the way Thor said the words and the way he looked: tense and urgent and angry.

“I’m trying to understand all this,” said Sam, looking dazed. “But I really don’t.”

“How do you know this, Thor?”

“Where have you been all this time?”

“Was Bruce really with you?”

There were a lot of questions, mostly from Jane, Steve and Clint, because they had known Thor the longest and were free to bombard the agitated demigod with questions without fear of being snapped at or worse, electrocuted. Sam, Scott and Wanda listened silently, their faces grave but expressions giving nothing away.

Thor, Tony and Bruce took turns explaining everything. It turned out that Bruce Banner _had_ been with Thor all this time. The Asgardian had come to Banner for help when the Frost Giants had attacked the Gods in an apocalyptic battle that Thor called ‘Ragnarok’ or ‘Doom of the Gods’.

“It was ugly,” said Bruce vaguely, mentioning something about a crazy wolf and a giant serpent and lots of death and destruction.

But that was a story for another time. The important thing was that the cosmos had survived the apocalypse and so had Thor and Bruce, which was all that mattered really. _Now_ , there was another threat and, unlike Ragnarok, this one wouldn’t miss Earth. In fact, the threat was headed straight to their planet. That was why Thor was back. He had landed at the compound with Bruce to find out that the Avengers had broken up and half of them were on the run.

“I leave for five minutes and you decide to kill each other,” Bruce said, shaking his head disappointedly.

“Hey!” said Tony. “You have no idea what went down here.”

“I’m actually glad you weren’t here, Bruce,” said Steve. “Things were bad and we all did a lot of stupid stuff.”

“If you think things were bad then,” warned Thor, “what’s coming will make you weep.”

“Turn it down a notch, Red Cape,” said Tony. He, then, looked around at them all and sighed. “He’s right, though. We’re at DEFCON 1 here and we need to assemble and fight together if we even _hope_ to defeat Thanos.”

“Who exactly _is_ Thanos and why’s he coming here?” Darcy spoke up for the first time.

Thor and Bruce launched into a brief description of Thanos, of how he had raided the intergalactic police force Nova Corps to get the Power Stone from their protection and how he had joined the attack of the Frost Giants to steal the Tesseract from Asgard. Apparently, Thanos was after the Infinity Stones and, according to Thor’s new allies who called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos possessed a magical gauntlet which he intended to use to unite all the Infinity Stones and in doing so, rule the entire universe from his throne in space.

When Thor and Bruce stopped speaking, Tony stood up. He hastened to explain what they knew about the Stones so far and dropped another bomb when he said there were six Infinity Stones in total and Thanos had claimed possession of all of them except—

“The Mind Stone,” whispered Wanda, her eyes widening. “Where’s Vision?”

“At the compound,” replied Tony regretfully. “There’s no place he can hide. With the combined power of the remaining five stones, Thanos probably knows exactly where the Mind Stone is.”

“So that’s why he’s coming to Earth,” noted Sam. “He intends to claim the last stone and… and then what?”

Tony shrugged and looked at Thor, who shook his head. “We don’t know for sure what his intentions are but they cannot be good,” revealed the demigod. “A being in possession of all six Infinity Stones will have the powers of a God—before you say anything, Darcy, I’m not really a God. I may have powers and possess an extended lifespan but I cannot destroy a planet or turn back time.”

“You’re saying Thanos will be able to do that? Destroy a planet and turn back time?” asked Scott in disbelief.

Thor laughed mirthlessly. “That is nothing, my friend. Once he has all six Stones and has united them with the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos will be able to blink us out of existence if he so wishes, destroy the universe, create a new species… you name it, anything.”

“Basically,” interrupted Tony. “There’s no stopping him and there’s no fighting him.”

“So what do we do?” asked Steve.

“We fight.”

“I’m sorry, you lost me again,” said Sam. “Didn’t you just say there’s no fighting him?”

“Until Thanos gets his hands on the Mind Stone, we still have a fighting chance. If he eliminates Vision…”

“No!” cried Wanda. “Don’t say that! No one is eliminating Vision.”

Clint wrapped an arm around her shoulder to calm her down. Tony looked surprised by her outburst but ploughed on, “We won’t let that happen, of course. Vision is powerful, he won’t go so easily. But _if_ it comes to that and the Mind Stone is taken, there won’t be anything we’ll be able to do and we’ll be at the mercy of the Mad Titan.”

“How much time do we have?” asked Steve.

“A day tops. Thor says the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps are assisting us by impeding his journey but that really won’t stop Thanos.”

“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go!”

“Uh… Steve,” said Scott hesitantly. “We’re fugitives, remember? We can’t go.”

Steve looked at Tony.

“Natasha and Rhodey are calling a press conference as we speak,” Tony declared, “to inform everyone of the impending threat. Fewer details and more visuals of death and gore. Nat and Rhodey are good at that kind of talk.” He grinned. “Point is, they are going to make it very clear that _all_ the Avengers will be required to defeat this new threat otherwise the world will perish and everyone will burn, blah blah blah. And unless the government agrees and clears your names, you will not fight.”

“But we will,” protested Wanda at once.

“Yes but they don’t know that,” said Tony. “The news will blow up in a few short hours and the UN will be under great pressure from the public and press.”

“That’s blackmail, Tony.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Steve? Blackmail or not, this is one way to immediately clear your names. We either go ahead with this or you can go back to hiding after this is all said and done. I don’t know about you but I’d prefer my team members weren’t outlaws.”

“Steve,” said Bruce softly. “Tony’s right. This is one way to tear up the Sokovia Accords or at least to amend them in our favor.”

“Stark and I will be at the press conference,” announced Thor. “I have a few choice words for your Midgardian authorities.”

Darcy saw Steve exchange a glance with Sam and Clint. “All right,” the latter spoke up, nodding slowly. “So what now?”

“We go back to the compound. We prepare for battle.”

They didn’t even have the time to digest all this new information. Thor’s words jolted them all into action. Clint went to prepare the jet and the rest of them hurried to pack their belongings. Thor said he and Iron Man could take two people with them and the rest could fly in the jet. Since Bruce hulked out by Thor’s method of travel, as they had seen earlier, Jane and Darcy were told to go with them instead.

Darcy promptly shook her head and grabbed onto Steve’s hand. “No,” she said. “I want to stay with you.”

“Darce,” Steve said gently. “I’ll be there in a few hours. Tony can take necessary measures to protect you and Jane in the meantime.”

Her grip on Steve’s fingers was firm. “I stay with you.”

“And I’ll be fine with Darcy and Steve,” Jane said to Thor.

“Very well. We’ll take the Falcon…”

“And the ant,” finished Tony.

“The name’s Scott.”

“Did you say snot?”

“Very funny, Stark.”

And that is how Darcy found herself in the jet with Jane’s head on her shoulder and on the way back to New York.


	17. Avengers, assemble!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to pianobookworm for being a wonderful beta reader.

The ride to New York wasn’t long but the journey felt like it would never end. Every time there was turbulence, Jane would sit up with her heart in her throat and everyone would look up, fearful of Thanos’ arrival. Logically, they knew he couldn’t get there so soon, he was thousands of stars away from Earth. But, he had the Space Stone which he could use to his advantage, so there wasn’t anything that could help soothe their souls even a little bit. Thanos was coming and they were all doomed. Darcy had started calling it Ragnarok: Part 2 in her head.

The press conference had already commenced when they reached the compound. Maria Hill let them in, not saying a word as she led them to the common area where they were greeted by Sam, Scott, Dr. Helen Cho, Vision and Erik. Jane and Darcy hugged Erik while Wanda ran to Vision. The television was on and they all sat around it, watching Thor roughing it out in front of the camera along with Tony, Colonel Rhodes, Natasha and an African man Steve told her was T’Challa, the King of Wakanda.

Natasha and Rhodes, it seemed, had done a very good job of scaring the press and Thor was downright angry as he addressed the entire nation, accusing them of sitting quietly while the superheroes who fought to protect them all were forced to battle among themselves, thanks to the Midgardian government who saw them as dangerous instead of guardians. He drew a lot of comparisons with Asgard, which he considered the most peaceful of all realms, and ended by saying that if they did not stand together this time, there would be no Earth to protect. Needless to say, his speech was epic and Darcy resisted the urge to whistle and applaud when he stepped back.

There were a lot of questions, quite a few pro-government and pro-Sokovia Accords, and Natasha took the microphone, patiently answering all the important ones that needed to be addressed. She called the Accords flawed, created by people with agendas and with no scope of amendments in favor of the Avengers.

“We’re humans, just like you, and eligible for the right to defend ourselves should we be accused of something.”

Effectively bringing up HYDRA’s past infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., she asked loudly if the humans of the world wanted the Avengers to answer to similar government organizations and be open to manipulations by politicians and bureaucrats. She asked if they needed a group of intelligent and enhanced individuals who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the planet or a band of puppets who danced to the tune of people with varying motivations.

Darcy turned to raise her eyebrows at Steve and caught Bruce’s gaze instead. He snorted and mumbled ‘drama queen’ under his breath. While, on one hand, Natasha was right, on the other hand, she was openly accusing the government of a lot of things, not the least of which being the construction and maintenance of an underwater raft prison in the middle of the ocean used to incarcerate people with abilities without a fair trial. But if Darcy knew one thing about Natasha Romanoff, it was that the woman was blunt, brutal and unafraid. Darcy had seen her on T.V. after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. mouthing off on Capitol Hill. _If you want to arrest me, arrest me. You know where to find me._

Tony mostly remained silent throughout the whole press conference but he was thrown into the limelight at the end since there was no way the reporters were going to leave without a few words from their current favorite superhero, Iron Man.

“Do you agree with the Black Widow’s bold accusations, Mr. Stark?”

Tony gripped the microphone in his hand and stood straight, his posture confident, as he replied with uncharacteristic solemnity, “We didn’t call this press conference to play the blame game, my dear friend. What I would like to say is that something worse is headed our way and the five of us standing before you will not be able to stop it on our own. We need a call to assemble, _all_ of us. But our friends in hiding won’t resurface only to fight and be put in jail once this is all over. Whatever happened at the onset of the Sokovia Accords was a matter of circumstance and a result of fine lies and manipulation on part of one Mr. Zemo who is now in government custody. According to proof that will be submitted to authorities later today, the Avengers in hiding are all innocent. They deserve to have their names cleared or at least warrant a fair trial. It is up to you to decide whose side you are on—with the planet or against the planet—and it is up to the authorities to decide what they are willing to do in order to protect humankind.” Tony paused for a few seconds to let the impact of his words set in, and then said, “Thank you. That will be all.”

The screen went black as Hill switched off the T.V. and turned to look at everyone with wide eyes. “Well, that was intense,” she said.

Clint looked amused. “No kidding.”

Darcy laughed and everyone joined in, enjoying a small private moment before things went to hell. Once Thor and the others returned, there was a brief Avengers meeting after which Colonel Rhodes and King T’Challa left for D.C., where along with Pepper Potts, they were scheduled for a meeting at the White House to alert the President about Thanos’ impending arrival and to submit the proof that Tony had earlier talked about at the press conference.

Tony disappeared in his lab, muttering something about strengthening and fortifying his Iron suit. Sam and Scott went with him, pestering him about taking a look at their suits as well. Wanda and Vision disappeared, too. Clint, Hill and Helen Cho were catching up with each other. And Darcy stood with Jane, Thor and Erik, occasionally sneaking a peek at Steve, who was speaking to Bruce and Natasha at the other end of the room.

As if he could sense her eyes on him, Steve looked up and caught her gaze. He stared at her for a while, then turned to Natasha and said something. Natasha nodded and Darcy wondered about the tiny smile on Bruce’s face when Steve motioned for Darcy to come to him. “What?” she mouthed to him but he merely jerked his head towards the exit meaningfully. Darcy sighed and turned to Jane.

“I’m going with Steve,” she said.

“Since when do you consort with Steven?” Thor asked with narrowed eyes.

Erik started. “You and Captain America? Really?”

Jane rolled her eyes. “Go, Darcy.”

Darcy smiled at her friend and made her way to Steve, taking his proffered hand and letting him lead her to what she later found out was his old room at the facility. He kicked the door shut behind them and proceeded to press short, urgent kisses all over Darcy’s face. She let him wrap his arms around her body and pull her into him but stopped him from raining any more kisses on her.

“No,” she said. “I know what you’re thinking and I will have none of that.”

“What am I thinking?” he asked, sneaking a kiss to her cheek.

“You’re thinking you’re not going to come out of this alive.”

Steve paused and pulled his face away to look at her. “How perceptive of you,” he teased half-heartedly. Darcy glared at him and he sighed. “I may be a super soldier, Darce, but I’m still human. If Thor’s warnings are to be believed, there’s no way all of us are going to come out of this unscathed.”

“Quit being negative…”

“I’m being realistic.”

“Fuck that! You’re not dying and that’s it.”

“You sound confident.”

“I’m a hopeful person.”

Steve huffed out a laugh and pressed his lips to hers. The hint of urgency in his touch was still there and when they fell on the bed kissing, Darcy knew that, if she let him, he would mark her right there in fear of never seeing her again. But Darcy stood by what she said—she was a hopeful person and she had high hopes that the Avengers would find a way to defeat Thanos. They had encountered all sorts of threats and disasters. They were the most capable of them all. They were the _Avengers_ , they _had_ to make it back alive. Because if they didn’t, the world wouldn’t either and Darcy would be dead, too.

In a swift movement that was only possible because of her training, Darcy flipped them until Steve was on his back and she was straddling his stomach. She narrowed her eyes and poked a finger to his chest.

“Steve, you get this through your thick head. I’ve been through enough shit in my life—my parents died when I was seven, my Aunt Tessa was a victim of anxiety attacks and I had to take care of her till her last breath, I’ve faced Loki’s Destroyer and the Dark Elves from hell—and I can face more such shit and still survive because I want to live. Especially now since I have you. So you better set your head straight and start thinking about surviving because if you don’t survive this, there’s a high chance that none of us will, either.”

Steve stared at her, his face lit up with so many emotions that it was hard to tell what he was feeling the most—awe, adoration, pride, desire, faith or determination.

Darcy poked him again. “Do you get it?”

“I love you,” he said abruptly. His hands came to grip her waist and he sat up to face her. “God, I love you so much!”

Darcy gaped at him. The bastard. He always knew how to deviate and distract her. It was becoming difficult to maintain her glare on him when his confession was sending shockwaves through her body and her heart was thudding a mile a minute.

“You’re not going to say it back?” Steve asked.

“Not until Thanos is dead and you’re back in my arms safe and alive.”

“What if I don’t come back safe and alive?”

“Then you’ll never get to hear me say these words to you.”

“But you _do_ love me.”

“I neither confirm nor deny it.”

“Okay, but how about you give me a hint? Nod if you love me, shake your head if you don’t.”

“ _Steve_!”

He laughed out loud and pulled her to him, indulging her in a playful wrestle of dominance until Darcy got tired and curled into his side, both of them falling asleep holding each other.

Peter Quill and his ragtag team of Guardians shook the entire compound when they crash landed nearby in an abandoned Stark warehouse in the middle of the night. They were the most diverse team of people Darcy had ever seen. There was a talking raccoon and a fucking _tree_ as tall as the ceiling of the common room area! Darcy walked up to the tree and said “Hi, I’m Darcy” and it replied with “I am Groot.” Darcy beamed. Awesome!

It seemed the world hadn’t slept that night at all. News channels were still running the press conference; there were debates on T.V., an interview of General Ross, a short video footage of the UN Council meeting discussing whether they should trust the Avengers or if this was a hoax, some sort of publicity stunt to reintegrate the fugitive Avengers into the fold. There was a statement from the President as well, surprisingly in favor of the Avengers. Twitter and tumblr were going crazy with thousands of messages pouring in every minute.

The final decision, however, was made when a large spaceship—large as in huge, massive, enormous, whopping, kinda like Independence Day spaceship but a whole lot bigger—broke the sky over the Middle East, and slowly but steadily made its way towards the United States of America. Half an hour after the ship’s first sighting, Tony got a call.

“Avengers, assemble!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end.
> 
> My goal from the beginning was for the Avengers to resolve their issues and to work together like old times again, a fix-it. And, of course, for Darcy and Steve to find each other in the midst of all this drama, action and humor. I don't profess to know a lot about Thanos or his motives and I also don't know how the Avengers would defeat him but, since I couldn't help myself ending the story on this chapter, there's going to be a short epilogue where I've elaborated my take on what could happen and possibly how. I hope you've enjoyed the story till now and I hope you enjoy the epilogue as well.
> 
> Thank you.


	18. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're at the end, guys. The story had a good run and I'm grateful to everyone who left me comments and shared their thoughts about the story with me. You guys are truly amazing! Your comments made my day and encouraged me to write better and to keep writing.
> 
> A huge thanks to [pianobookworm](http://archiveofourown.org/users/pianobookworm/works) for guiding me through this journey. She's a wonderful beta reader and, as I've probably said before, an even more wonderful person. She was patient with me and was very accommodating with my frequent complaints about various scenes and characters. Thank you, Maya, for everything that you did for me and my Lil' Sidekick.
> 
> (This epilogue was supposed to be short, but it grew into a chapter sized epilogue. Ah well...)

Darcy stood in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing her hair. She could hear the sound of the ocean through the open balcony window. If she concentrated enough, she could feel the ship moving, cutting through the water in the dark of the night to get to its destination port. It thrilled her, the ocean. She and Steve had spent hours on the topmost deck, watching the water, occasionally making out to the sounds of music the late night band played. One of the cruise passengers had requested a Korean song that Darcy had never heard before and now she couldn’t get the tune out of her head.

It had been the best day of her life. No work, no nosy friends, no responsibilities, no battle to fight… just her and Steve, being normal with hundreds of other normal faceless people on the ship. They were there legally this time, and their cabin was bigger. When Steve was in the early stages of planning a cruise vacation, Tony had jumped up and down with excitement, saying they could take his private yacht to the sea. But Darcy wanted the experience of a cruise ship, so Tony had offered to buy the entire cruise. Steve had shot that idea down as well, saying it was too much and that they wanted to be normal among other people. In the end, Tony couldn’t resist upgrading them to the balcony suite from their measly twin bedded inside cabin. They got free in-room service as well, which Darcy was pretty sure other passengers did not get.

She felt bad for not inviting Tony and Pepper along, especially since the power couple had gotten back together but Darcy knew Tony had a new mission and unless he was successful with it, he wouldn’t take any sort of vacation or days off.

His mission was to create Vision again.

When Thanos had come to Earth and the Avengers had assembled, Darcy hadn’t known what would happen or how long the fight would persist. Initially, Thanos had been suspiciously calm with the heroes, asking for the Mind Stone and coolly letting them know what would happen if they declined to cooperate. Tony Stark and Wanda had planted themselves firmly before Vision, and Peter Quill had mouthed off to the Mad Titan and that’s when the fight had begun. It was sick how entertained Thanos had looked despite being pitched against so many superheroes. It almost seemed like he was playing a game, taunting them, like he was merely showing off his abilities to let them know what they were up against.

But then Colonel Rhodes had died, their first casualty, and Thanos had used that moment of shock to finally wield the Infinity Gauntlet and obliterate Thor from existence. It was shocking and more than surreal, seeing Thor disappear just like that. The battle after that point had been brutal and very, very long. Sitting in the underground communications room in the Avengers facility with Maria Hill and many others, Darcy had lost track of time waiting for her people to come back. She and Jane ate and slept in that room, their eyes mostly fixed on the grainy, broken footage that aired online—footage of the Avengers fighting the Mad Titan Thanos.

Darcy still had no idea how they had managed to defeat him. Thanos was no ordinary villain. He was strong, so strong and powerful that he had blown a giant crater right in the middle of New York where he had touched down, his enormous spaceship still hovering ominously above them all. Much of the surrounding area had been evacuated due to the warnings given at the press conference but the human casualty list had still been very long and New York had definitely needed to rebuild again after the battle. Poor city, always targeted.

“Darcy,” Steve’s voice from outside broke into her thoughts and she called back, “Coming… five minutes.”

Steve had been badly injured in the aftermath. So had Sam. Tony’s armor had been irreparably damaged. Clint had come out with several broken ribs and a fractured leg. Natasha had almost died—Groot had saved her. Drax had taken a direct hit to the head that had rendered him in coma for three weeks. Everyone had taken a hit, even the Hulk… even Thor who, in Thanos’ second attempt to coax the Avengers into giving up the Mind Stone, had miraculously been brought back to life. Even through the grainy online footage, it was painfully obvious how shaken up he had been about it.

The worst part of the battle, however, was seeing Vision die. Fierce, pitiless and torturous, his death had been a blow to everyone, especially Tony and Wanda. It had strengthened their resolve to keep fighting. Once Thanos had all the Stones, there was no stopping him. Seeing the battle play out on the screen before her, Darcy had begun to lose hope. She remembered what she had said to Steve in his room. _I’m a hopeful person._ The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth and she hated how helpless she was in that moment.

Unsurprisingly, it was Scott and Wanda’s special powers that had ultimately tipped the scales in their favor. With Wanda’s energy manipulation and mind zapping and Scott’s ability to morph his body to the extreme size, they had managed to trick Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet had made it into the hands of Peter Quill. The man had almost lost a hand wielding the Gauntlet to destroy the Mad Titan once and for all. If it had not been for his fellow Guardians, Gamora and Rocket, Quill would be dead.

It had been a sight to see, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy holding hands, standing in a circle around the Mad Titan, surrounded by a power bubble so strong that Darcy had wondered how they hadn’t all been electrocuted inside. When the bubble faded, the heroes stood alone in the circle and Thanos’ ashes lay on the ground, his body blown to smithereens. All the Infinity Stones had been destroyed as well, all except the Mind Stone which Quill and Tony had somehow managed to save. Tony intended to use it to bring back Vision.

“I couldn’t save Rhodey,” he had told Darcy later, his eyes red-rimmed and face determined. “But I can at least bring Vision back to us.”

Once the air had settled, King T’Challa had returned to his country and the Guardians left as well. Tony had helped them repair their ship. It had taken about three months and in that time, the five of them had bonded well with the Avengers. Darcy got along best with Peter Quill—the little shit—while Gamora and Natasha sat together, shaking their heads at the antics of Peter and Darcy. Thor left for Asgard as well but promised that he would return soon and this time, forever.

In a surprising turn of events, the Avengers now belonged to Stark Industries. None of them knew what Pepper Potts had done or how the hell she had done it but SI now exercised jurisdiction over the Avengers and their actions. SI had a research division which would be responsible for vetting threats and the government would be informed about their missions via mission reports once they were complete and the day had been saved. A PR team, personally overseen by Pepper, had also been assigned to the group.

Darcy had been asked to apply for a position in the PR department but she had turned it down, citing that she was happy taking care of her scientists at the compound. Along with Erik and Jane, she had also welcomed Tony, Bruce and Helen Cho into her fold, and was pretty sure the five of them couldn’t live without her. Plus, Steve was at the compound and he liked to know that Darcy was nearby if they needed each other. So a job at SI was never in her cards.

“Darcy,” Steve called again. “You’ve been in there for fifteen minutes! Do I need to rescue you from the shower curtain?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. _That was one time, Steve, one time._ She placed her hair brush on the sink and went to lean on the open bathroom door. Steve was sitting on the bed, his back propped up comfortably against a pile of pillows and his legs stretched out before him. He was pouring red wine in a glass and looked up when he sensed her eyes on him.

“Why are you shouting?” asked Darcy.

“Why are you so far?”

She walked up to him and climbed over his legs, straddling him. “Better?”

He let his eyes roam over her, taking in the red negligee she was wearing, and skimmed his palms over the smooth silk. “Much better,” he replied huskily.

Darcy trailed her fingers down his face and leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek. “You talk to King T’Challa?” she asked, planting another kiss on Steve’s jaw.

“Why are we talking about him right now?”

“He was going to update us about Bucky’s progress, Steve, or have you forgotten?”

“Hmmm no,” he mumbled, trying to catch her lips with his. “I haven’t. But he messaged me earlier today. Said it would take another month but his doctors will definitely be able to deprogram him once and for all.”

“He won’t let Bucky speak with you?”

“No.”

“Have you talked to Tony?”

“ _Why_ are we talking about other people when you’re sitting in my lap wearing this red thing that I could very well rip apart with my littlest finger?”

Darcy regarded him silently and he stared back grumpily, his hands bunching the hem of her night dress and tugging roughly to prove his point. Deciding to tease him a bit more, she pressed herself against him and ghosted her lips over his until his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing quickened, and then she pulled back abruptly.

“Okay but can I call Jane?” she asked impishly. “I really need to talk to— _ah, Steve_!”

In the blink of an eye, Darcy found herself flat on the sheets with Steve on top of her. She laughed loudly when he lowered his head and blew a raspberry into her neck. He did that until she was screaming with mirth and begging him to stop.

“You still need to call Jane?”

“Well,” she began breathily and burst into giggles when he blew another raspberry on her skin. “No, no, God no!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure.”

“Good. Will you let me kiss you now?”

“Yes.”

“And you won’t interrupt until I’ve kissed you all over… several times?”

“Y-yes.”

“That’s my lil’ sidekick.”

Before Darcy could curse him for calling her that, his lips were on hers and his hand came up to rest some place very important to the both of them and all thoughts of reprimanding him for calling her a sidekick flew straight out of her head. In spite of the fact that Darcy had fallen in love with him, there was one thing that would never change—

Captain America was and would forevermore be an ass.


End file.
